Brendan Lines 14 Sept, 2020

Lewis Hamilton has secured the 90th victory of his career, his sixth of the 2020 season ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull’s Alex Albon in a double red-flagged race of high attrition at the Tuscan Grand Prix.

Formula 1’s much anticipated debut visit to the revered Tuscan Hills track marked Ferrari’s 1000th Grand Prix start and the season’s most drama filled race so far, a first lap DNF for Max Verstappen was followed by scenes of carnage at the race re-start.

Carlos Sainz collides with Kevin Magnussen – Image: Motorsport.com

“Today was one of the most challenging days, physically and mentally, I’ve experienced. I’m pretty exhausted to be honest, but it feels fantastic to win such a crazy race,” Hamilton said.

“It’s all a bit of a daze and felt like three races in one day. It was incredibly tough out there, this track is phenomenal and Valtteri was pushing me hard, so it wasn’t easy at all.

“With all the restarts and the focus that was required, it was really hard. The first start wasn’t great and I lost the place to Valtteri, but then the second start was better and I got the place back.

“I had a comfortable advantage after that point but then there was another red flag. Anything could have happened on those restarts but fortunately on the last one, I got my best start of the day and was able to maintain my position.”

The field had barely made it into Turn 3 on the opening lap, when Max Verstappen’s slowing Red Bull had lost power off the line, the Dutchman fell down the pack and was squeezed by Pierre Gasly’s Alpha Tauri on the outside, an evading Kimi Räikkönen had nowhere to go but into the Red Bull, the incident saw both Verstappen and last week’s Italian GP winner Gasly out of the race on the first lap.

Bottas then lead the field behind the safety car until a re-start on Lap 9, the Fin’s restrained to get back on the throttle causing confusion further back as the field compressed in a high speed concertina effect that sent McLaren’s Carlos Sainz into a triple rear-end collision with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, Williams’ Nicholas Latifi and Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi, the spectacular carnage brought out the first red flag for the race.

With less than a kilometer raced under green the field reset back to the pitlane, during the 25-minute stoppage, Renault’s Esteban Ocon retired with over heating brakes, brining the field back to 12.

Hamilton used the slipstream from Bottas to pip the sister Mercedes for the lead into Turn 1 on the restart.

Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari tenuous hold on P3 was under fire from Racing Point’s Lance Stroll, in Lap 18 Stroll got the move done, Daniel Ricciardo and Alex Albon soon followed to pass Leclerc unable to defend from his rivals DRS advantage.

On Lap 31 Bottas radioed in his request to take whatever tyres Hamilton wasn’t on, Mercedes fit Bottas with a set of Hard tyres, but the Fins call was countered by Mercedes later pitting Hamilton for his own Hard tyres, Bottas was stuck inntrafgic and Hamilton opened the gap out to 0.7s.

Ricciardo opted to undercut Stroll during the pit stop phase to take third place, as Racing Point’s Stroll sandwiched Albon into P5 with the sister Racing Point of Sergio Perez in P6.

Red Bull’s Alex Albon on the podium – Image: Redbullcontentpool

It wasn’t smooth sailing for Mercedes out front, as the team radio it’s drivers to stay off the kerbs — much like the instruction given at Silverstone.

Effectively holding station, there wasn’t much Bottas could do to reign in Hamilton, the Fin radioed to his team “A safety car would be nice right now.”

On Lap 43 Bottas got his wish, albeit at the expense of Stroll, who left the track at the high speed second Arrabiata turn. Stroll reported a puncture, that most likely caused by a piece of body work seen breaking off his car mid-corner, his Racing Point slammed into the barrier left to ruin as Stroll walked away unscathed.

Stroll’s incident triggered the second red flag, the race re-start would effectively be a 12 lap sprint to the end.

Bottas was gifted a golden opportunity to take the win from Hamiltin on the re-start, but instead couldn’t get his Mercedes swiftly off the line, Ricciardo slipped past and into second place — Albon also slipped back behind Perez into P5.

But P2 was cold comfort for Ricciardo, with no DRS to defend on the re-start the Australian fell ill to the superior speed of Bottas’ Mercedes, his Renault then fell into the clutches of Albon who had accounted for Perez.

Hamilton amassed a four second gap as Bottas clawed back P2, the Mercedes cars powered on to the end taking the teams 100th 1-2 victory, while Albon took his maiden podium finish in P3.