17:36 – Lewis Hamilton has won an incidental Grand Prix of Tuscany. The reigning world champion survived a race that was halted no less than twice. Valtteri Bottas finished second at Mugello, while Alexander Albon took his first podium in Formula 1 by crossing the finish line third. Max Verstappen was already ready after two corners and thus scored his third zero score in 2020.
The first Grand Prix of Tuscany – Ferrari’s thousandth Formula 1 race – was one that many will remember for a long time. Not often a race sees a red flag twice, so that the field takes a total of three times on the grid.
It was an instant hit at Mugello. Even before the start, there appeared to be a problem with Max Verstappen’s car, which meant that hard work on his Red Bull had to be done on the grid. According to the team, the problem was solved before the start, but that was not the case when the red lights above the straight went out. For him, Lewis Hamilton came off poorly from pole position, allowing Valtteri Bottas to easily take the lead and Verstappen getting next to the reigning world champion. But then the Dutchman struggled to accelerate further. “No power!” He called over the on-board radio as he was driven past left and right.
For the third corner, Carlos Sainz was kicked around by Lance Stroll, after which Sebastian Vettel sustained damage to his front wing by just hitting the McLaren. Meanwhile, Pierre Gasly and Romain Grosjean collided on the way to the second corner. The Frenchman then slid into Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo, which in turn hit the back of Verstappen. The Limburger spun off the track and got stuck in the pebbles, ending the race for him. Gasly, the surprising winner at Monza a week ago, also found his Waterloo in the gravel pit on the outside of the second corner. Once back in the paddock, Verstappen was initially disappointed by the technical problem. “Not bad at all”, he said about the incident at the second corner against Ziggo Sport. “I would have dropped out anyway. Of course you get this when you have such bullshit at the start, then you end up in such positions. Then there is a chance that you will be hit from behind.” The chunks at the second corner were reason for a safety car.
After the cars of Verstappen and Gasly were cleared and the field was released after six laps, more misery followed. Valtteri Bottas did not step on the accelerator until late at the restart, which led to major problems further back. The drivers in the rear for the sake of convenience assumed that the Finn would go full on coming up the straight and increased the pace, while driving further forward was still slow. A chaotic and perilous situation on the straight was the inevitable result. After the smoke cleared, the track appeared to be littered with debris and a crashed car was smoldering here and there. The Grand Prix was over for Carlos Sainz, Antonio Giovinazzi, Kevin Magnussen and Nicholas Latifi. The mess on the straight made the race director reach for the red flag, temporarily interrupting the race for the second week in a row.
After half an hour, the cars were sent out of the pit lane and the race was resumed with a standing start. Before the red flag, there appeared to be a braking problem at Esteban Ocon, which meant that the Frenchman was missing on the grid this time. Bottas initially seemed to get away fine when the race started for the second time, but was overtaken by Hamilton on the outside at the first corner before the Brit steadily walked away from his teammate. The race was 31 laps old when Bottas was first brought to the pits from second place by Mercedes. Normally, the team’s lead car is fitted with new tires first, but the Finn was concerned about his rubber and was allowed to enter first for safety reasons. Hamilton said his tires were still fine, but to prevent Bottas from taking the lead from his teammate with an undercut, the Brit was brought in a lap later.
The situation at the front remained unchanged. “A safety car would be nice,” said Bottas at one point. Not much later he was served at his beck and call. Lance Stroll was presumably hit by a flat tire on the 43rd lap on the way to the Arrabbiata 2, which caused him to lose control of his Racing Point at high speed and land with a hard slap sideways into the tire stacks. The Canadian left a badly damaged RP20 unharmed, while the safety car returned to the track and everyone in the pits reported again for a tire change. Not much later, a code red followed for the second time and the entire field took place in the pit lane again.
What remained was a thirteen lap sprint to the finish flag. Hamilton and Bottas were allowed to take the front row again. Daniel Ricciardo, who had crept forward almost unnoticed, and Alexander Albon, who once again showed a good race pace, shared the second row, ahead of Sergio Perez and Lando Norris on the third line. Daniil Kvyat, Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Sebastian Vettel, Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen were the only others left in the race.
Bottas did not benefit from the restart. On the contrary. While Hamilton got off well, the Finn was passed by Ricciardo. The driver from Perth, however, only managed to hold on to second place for one lap. One lap later, Bottas went back past the Renault without much difficulty. Albon saw Perez in front of him at the restart but quickly fought back to fourth position and then seemed to be able to drive to Bottas. However, the order in the front remained unharmed. Hamilton finished first, ahead of Bottas and Albon. Ricciardo had to settle for fourth place, but was named Driver of the Day. Perez, Norris and Kvyat finished fifth, sixth and seventh. Raikkonen came eighth under the flag, but fell back to ninth place due to a five-second time penalty for crossing the white line at the pit entrance. Charles Leclerc took advantage and moved up to P8, Sebastian Vettel made it a double point finish for Ferrari with tenth place. George Russell was on the points race for Williams for a long time, but had a bad restart and finished eleventh. Romain Grosjean finished twelfth and was the last to see the flag.
In two weeks, the 2020 Formula 1 season will continue with the Grand Prix of Russia.
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