Poleman Bottas retires with a rare engine issue for Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton took a record-equalling 91st career victory, putting him on par with Michael Schumacher as Max Verstappen finished second and Daniel Ricciardo achieved his and Renault’s first podium of the season at F1 returned to the classic Nurburgring track.

By Malhaar Khaladkar

London, 12 Oct 2020: Valtteri Bottas took pole position, out qualifying Lewis Hamilton for the first time in 5 races as Mercedes locked out the front row. Max Verstappen started P3 and Red Bull teammate Alex Albon lined up in P5, split by the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc in P4. Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo in P6 & Esteban Ocon in P7. McLaren too started with both cars in the top 10, Lando Norris in P8 and Carlos Sainz in P10. Sandwiched between them was Racing Points’s Sergio Perez in P9. His ‘new’ teammate, super-sub Nico Hulkenberg qualified in P20 as he filled in for an unwell Lance Stroll. Sebastian Vettel lined up in P11 ahead of the two AlphaTauri’s of Pierre Gasly in 12th and Daniil Kvyat in 13th. Antonio Giovinazzi made it to Q2 for the first time this season as he started in P14, 5 places ahead of his veteran teammate Kimi Raikkonen. Raikkonen breaking the record of most starts by a driver in F1. Haas’ and Williams lined up in a two-by-two formation with Kevin Magnussen P15, Romain Grosjean P16, George Russell P17 and Nicholas Latifi P18.

Cold temperatures and no running on Friday due to fog cover, tyre wear and strategies were unpredictable. Pirelli predicted the one stop from soft to medium tyres as the fastest strategy.

Hamilton got a great start and pulled alongside pole sitter Bottas. Bottas was able to maintain his lead coming into turn 2 as Hamilton settled for P2. Behind Leclerc still maintained P4 but Albon lost out to Ricciardo. As the pack settled , Bottas had a 1.5s lead over Hamilton with Verstappen another 1.5s behind.

By lap 8 Albon pitted for medium tyres as he badly flat spotted his starting set of tyres. Ricciardo overtook Leclerc on lap 9, using his superior pace of the Renault car against the Ferrari. Dark clouds also started to appear on the horizon with few droplets making their way onto the track. Leclerc flat spotted his tyres and had to pit on lap 11, meanwhile, his teammate Vettel spun during breaking at turn 1 as he tried to avoid Giovinazzi.

Hamilton was 1.2s behind Bottas. Bottas made a decisive mistake on lap 13, locking right-front tyre and going wide into turn 1, allowing Hamilton to take the lead. By lap 14 Hamilton already had 2s lead over Bottas as he was forced to pit for medium tyres due to flat spotting his tyre into turn 1. Bottas emerged in P4 behind Ricciardo but quickly overtook him to settle into P3.

Lap 15 saw Russell get punted off by Raikkonen which resulted in a puncture for the Englishman. He was unable to make it to the pits and eventually retired. This saw a VSC come out, giving a faster pit stop to the cars who were yet to pit. This played well in the hands of Hamilton and Verstappen as Bottas had already pitted. Ricciardo pitted too, coming out behind Norris, Perez, Sainz and Ocon.

Unfortunately, Bottas’s bad luck continued as in lap 19 he reported a power loss and had to retire the car, the first retirement for Mercedes in 2020. Ocon retired on lap 23 due to a hydraulic failure and Alex Albon retired on lap 25, again a power unit problem. Meanwhile, Norris too reported a loss of power in his McLaren but continued on. After Norris, Perez and Sainz pitted, Ricciardo was running comfortably in P3.

By lap 40 Hamilton had a lead of around 10s over Verstappen. Ricciardo was running in P3 as he was being caught quickly by Perez in his fresher tyres. Sainz had made his way to P5 and Norris was in P6 still struggling to overcome the power loss..

Norris’s car shut down on lap 45, bringing out the safety car as the top 6 cars pitted for soft tyres. Everyone struggled to keep temperatures behind the safety car. Hamilton and Verstappen seen complaining about the pace of the safety car on radio. Safety car ended on lap 50 as Hamilton made a quick getaway. Verstappen struggled for grip as Ricciardo challenged him for P2. Behind Hulkenberg after starting last, had made his way up to P8 and was challenging Leclerc for P7, who was overtaken by Gasly for P6.

At the chequered flag, Hamilton won the 91st race of his career and equalled Schumacher. Verstappen finished P2 and Ricciardo got a well deserved podium in P3- his first since Monaco 2018. Perez finished in P4, Sainz in P5 and Gasly in P6, another good drive after starting outside of the points. Leclerc managed to hold off Hulkenberg for P7. Hulkenberg was driver of the day as without any practice he managed to get points in P8. Haas’s Grosjean got his first points of the season in P9 and Giovinazzi completed the top 10. Vettel finished where he started in P11 ahead of ex-teammate Raikkonen in P12 . Magnussen finished P13, Latifi in P14 and Kvyat in P15.

Mercedes looked under threat from Red Bull during qualifying and interestingly all other teams closed up to Mercedes compared to their average gap in season. It maybe because there was no Friday running, therefore, Mercedes could not find the set up sweet spot and struggled a bit with tyres. They still managed to get a front row lockout and were never really challenged for the victory in the race. Hamilton yet again rewrote history by equalling Schumacher’s tally of wins. Red Bull looked to have made gains as they brought new front wing endplates which has improved the balance of the car. It may be an anomaly, but they were closer to Mercedes than they have been in previous races. Ferrari brought new barge boards and floor which has improved the performance of the car, especially in the hands of Leclerc as he qualified P4. Race pace still remains to be poor as both Leclerc and Vettel fell backwards during the Grand Prix.

Renault have been on the rise since the Belgian GP, this time resulting in a well deserved podium for Ricciardo. He has finished in the top 5 in the last 5 races which shows Renault has made gains in both qualifying and race pace. They may even be ahead of McLaren in terms of car performance, remains to be seen for the last third of the season. McLaren were unable to find the setup sweet spot- similar to Mercedes, therefore, had poor a qualifying. Race was much better as both Norris and Sainz were able to hold on to their positions without being challenged. Racing Point have made gains, especially since Mugello GP when they introduced an extensive side pod bodywork update. They seem to be on par with Renault during the race.

AlphaTauri are now 13 points behind Ferrari as the battle for 6th place in the constructors heats up. Their qualifying performances are not to behold but they always manage to get one of their cars in the points, this time Gasly in P6. Their race pace has been their strong pony this year and could overtake Ferrari if this trend continues. Alfa Romeo has looked like a much improved car since Mugello as Giovinazzi got into Q2 and finished in the points. Haas too seem to have solved their balance issues for this race, though, remains to be seen if this is the case for rest of the season. Williams has shown encouraging race pace and Russell thought he could have achieved points had he not been taken out by Raikkonen. This upward trajectory of Williams may soon enough see them on par or even ahead of Haas and Alfa Romeo.