The F1 circus was in Italy for the second time in 2020, this time at the Mugello Circuit for the first time in history. The FORMULA 1 PIRELLI GRAN PREMIO DELLA TOSCANA FERRARI 1000 2020 was a race full of incidents, with a long safety car at the start of the race and two red flags following crashes that took out many of the drivers.
Off the grid, Valtteri Bottas got away well, while his teammate got away very poorly from pole position. Bottas got by on the run up to the first corner. Max Verstappen got alongside the slower Hamilton, but dropped down the field after a loss of power.
Kimi Raikkonen, Pierre Gasly and Romain Grosjean were three wide on the exit of the first corner, but the gap closed and the trio collided. This pushed Raikkonen into the rear of the slow Verstappen. All the cars went tumbling into the gravel. Gasly and Verstappen were not able to continue the race.
In the second corner, Carlos Sainz made minor contact with a Racing Point and spun around. He collected Sebastian Vettel. Both drivers were able to rejoin the race.
The incident saw the use of the special red safety car. The Mercedes-AMG GT R was sporting a red livery this race in honour of Ferrari’s 1000th Grand Prix run in Formula One.
The race very briefly resumed on lap 7 before being red flagged for the second race in a row, this time for a huge crashed on the main straight before the mid-field crossed the line. This time it was Carlos Sainz, Antonio Giovinazzi, Kevin Magnussen and Nicholas Latifi would found themselves out of the race.
Bottas waited a long time to to restart the race pace, which he was allowed to do from the front of the grid. The rear of the field anticipated the restart before the rest of the field started to go, causing the field to accordion into each other.
Latifi narrowly avoided rear ending the slow Magnussen. Giovinazzi was not as lucky, slamming into the rear of Magnussen and then crashing into the side of Latifi. Sainz also hit the rear of Magnussen.
Esteban Ocon was not able to resume the race after the red flag situation due to a mechanical issue. This left only 13 cars still running in the race before the drivers even completed a lap under racing conditions.
Hamilton’s brakes were smoking heavily while sitting on the front row of the grid for the standing restart. When the lights went out for the second time of the day, Bottas got another solid start. Hamilton moved to the right side of the circuit to cover off Charles Leclerc. Hamilton took the race lead around the outside of the first corner. This left the Mercedes drivers alone to pull away in the front.
On lap 18, Lance Stroll was able to get by Leclerc, up into P3. Daniel Ricciardo was able to swoop past Leclerc the following lap thanks to the DRS, taking P4. Alexander Albon got by Leclerc as well on lap 20 and Sergio Perez went by a lap later. Leclerc was unhappy with his soft compound tyres and dove into the pit lane on lap 22 for a new set of hard tyres.
After a good battle with Stroll of P3, Ricciardo came into the pit lane for fresh tyres. Perez and Raikkonen pitted the following lap for tyres. Raikkonen’s stop was slow after the team left the car on the rear jack for a long time. Vettel also pitted the same lap, having been losing time to the Williams of George Russell ahead.
The rest of the field cycled through the pits in the following laps, including Stroll four laps after Ricciardo had pitted. Crucially, Ricciardo was able to undercut Stroll to take a podium position.
In the Mercedes pit box, Bottas was the first to pit after experiencing some vibrations from the front tyres. The team bolted on a set of hard tyres, which were the same tyres that Hamilton put on his car two laps later. Bottas had wanted to pit the opposite tyre of Hamilton, but he didn’t get his wish. Both Mercedes cars maintained this leading positions after the pit window.
On lap 38, Leclerc pitted for the second time in the race, having only run 17 laps on his set of hard tyres. He changed onto a set of medium compound tyres, dropping outside of the points positions again.
Both Mercedes drivers were told to stay off the kerbs to “protect the tyre integrity”, suggesting the team were facing tyre wear issues with only 20 laps remaining in the race.
The safety car was deployed once again, this time to recover the heavily damaged Racing Point of Lance Stroll from the gravel on the outside of turn 9. It appears that his car suffered a puncture in the high speed corner, sending his car spinning into the tyre barriers.
Bottas was able to pit when the safety car first came out because his teammate was already past the pit lane. He took the medium tyres. However, Hamilton was able pit on his way around the track and maintain his race lead with a new set of mediums.
Critically, the decision was made to red flag the race again, meaning the race would resume with a standing start.
The race resumed with just 12 laps remaining. Off the grid, Bottas had a poor start, dropping to P3 behind Ricciardo. Albon made a good overtake around the outside of Perez on the first lap. Further back, Russell had a slow start, dropping to the rear of the field, making a point finish look less likely.
Raikkonen was awarded a 5 second time penalty for crossing the white line at the pit entry back when the safety car was first deployed for Stroll’s accident.
Bottas took back P2 from Ricciardo around the outside of the first corner on the second lap after the restart. Ricciardo was smart not to fight the Mercedes and risk losing time. But a few laps later, Albon was able to zoom past Ricciardo to snatch the podium position away from the Australian.
In the late stages of the race, a battle for the final points scoring position looked as though it may be on. Russell was able to get by Grosjean, recovering to P11. He tried his best to get to by Vettel, but was unable to get close enough. Raikkonen’s penalty caused him to drop down to P9. Russell missed out on what would have been his first career points and Williams’ first points since the 2019 German Grand Prix.
At the front of the field it was Lewis Hamilton who earns his 90th career victory, putting him just 1 win away from matching Michael Schumacher’s record for the most career wins. Bottas, who loses more ground on his teammate in the World Drivers’ Championship, finished on the second step of the podium, with Albon scoring his first F1 podium.
The teams will be leaving Italy, although they will return in November to race at Imola later in the season. For now, they will get a week off before heading to the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia for a race on the weekend of September 27.
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Above results table does not include any post-race penalties
