Brendan Lines October 12, 2020

Lewis Hamilton has secured his 91st victory in Formula One – his seventh of the 2020 season and second at the Nürburgring from Max Verstappen in P2 and Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo in P3.

Hamilton now equals Michael Schumacher’s record for the most race wins in F1, The Brit was presented with one of Michael’s helmets, by Michael’s son Mick, in Parc fermé in celebration of the significant win.

“It was beyond my wildest dreams to be equalling his number of race wins and it just shows that dreams can come true. It’s an incredible honour and something that will take some time to sink in. But I couldn’t have done it without this incredible team, everyone pushing so hard,” Hamilton said after the race.

“Max was right behind me and I knew I had to have a strong restart to keep him behind. I managed to catch him out which is always nice and that gave me the jump I needed. But you can see the pace Red Bull had at the end, so we’ve got a serious fight on our hands.”

From a front row lock-out start both Mercedes cars pulled away into Turn 1, Hamilton took advantage of a wide moment by teammate Valterri Bottas, Bottas held off the attack coming out in front after the jostling — surprisingly the squabbling cars behind the Mercedes lead by Max Verstappen didn’t take advantage of the jostling struggling for grip on cold tyres to close in.

Bottas drove away into the lead in the opening phase of the race, opening up an average lead of +1.0s. On Lap 13 degrading on Bottas’ Soft-shod Mercedes caused a front right wheel lock-up into Turn 1 allowing Hamilton to sweep past into the lead.

That was just the beginning of a tough day for the Fin, who then fell into the clutches of Verstappen’s Red Bull who was right on Mercedes’ pace — Bottas slipped back to P3.

Hamilton might have thought all his Christmases had come at once with Bottas aside, George Russell parked-up his Williams after damage sustained from an incident with Kimi Räikkönen, Hamilton was able to pit under yellow flags to fit Medium tyres to pull away to a four second lead over Verstappen now in P2.

Bottas, Hamilton’s nearest world championship points rival, slipped back to +21.0s off Hamilton’s lead, but the day was done on Lap 18 when Bottas radioed power loss from his engine and retired his W11 on Lap 19.

That offered clear air to Hamilton and Verstappen back to the field, McLaren’s Lando Norris had clawed his way into P3 without a pit stop, but Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo were hot on Norris’ heels on fresh rubber.

While things were looking up for Ricciardo, his teammate Esteban Ocon retired the sister Renault on Lap 23 with hydraulic failure. Red Bull’s Alex Albon soon followed the same fate retiring with a terminal issue to his Honda power unit.

With the attrition rate on the rise opportunities were wide open in the midfield to progress.

Nico Hülkenberg, Racing Point’s super sub rocketed from P20 on the grid to finish P8, parachuting into the team for Saturday’s qualifying replacing the ill Lance Stroll.

Hülkenberg proving himself still worthy of a full-time F1 drive, helping Racing Point snatch third place in the constructors standings off McLaren.

Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi backed up qualifying P14 finishing in a well earned P10.

The third step on the podium was still anyone’s at the pointy end of the field.

Norris tried to defend from Perez despite losing power, the McLaren team radioed instructions to stop the power losses for Norris’ car, but on Lap 30 the Brit took a pitstop in an attempt to cover Perez’s taking Medium tyres to make race distance.

Daniel Ricciardo was the benefactor staying out on his Medium tyres slotting into P3. Perez despatched Leclerc’s Ferrari on Lap 35 to begin a charge on Ricciardo, the Mexican catching Ricciardo by seven tenths a lap matching Hamilton’s pace out front.

Norris’ eventual retirement on Lap 44 would bookend to the final stanza, bringing out the safety car.

The leaders took pitstops on offer under the safety car. Perez, now P3, gave himself track position over Ricciardo but the Aussie would be on fresh Soft tyres for the re-start on Lap 50 — it would be a sprint race to the finish line.

Hamilton and Verstappen both radioed their frustration as the long safety car period exacerbated their tyre cooling issues, Verstappen still weaving frantically to get heat into his Soft tyres, leaving himself wide open for Riccirado to make a dive around the outside of Turn 1.

The skirmish let the pair fall back into the clutches of Perez in P4, but Ricciardo let the quicker Red Bull go to consolidate a well earned podium finish, his first since 2018.

“Oh wow, it feels like the first time I ever got a podium. These emotions and that feeling you get when you get out the car, hug the team, the mechanics slapping you on the helmet, it’s just amazing and I am so happy we did it!” Ricciardo said.

Hamilton pumped in some of the fastest laps of the Grand Prix to claim the point for fastest lap in his way to a record win, only to have Verstappen take fastest lap honours on the final lap — the only blemish on a momentus day for Hamilton.