Hamilton rewrites history with convincing 92nd win: Race Analysis

By Malhaar Khaladkar

London, 26 October 2020: Lewis Hamilton achieved a record breaking 92nd career race win as he surpassed Michael Schumacher to be the most successful driver in terms of wins in Formula 1. Mercedes achieved their fourth 1-2 of the season as Valtteri Bottas finished 2nd and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen completed the podium.

Hamilton re-wrote history by winning the most number of races in Formula 1, 92. This was also his 8th win of the season and won by the biggest margin of 2020, by 25.592s despite suffering cramps towards the end, from teammate Bottas who had no answer for his loss of pace. Verstappen finished in P3 in the process lapping his teammate Albon, who finished in P12. Leclerc crossed the line in an impressive P4. Gasly yet again had a mega drive in P5, Sainz following him in P6 as Perez recovered from last at the start to P7. The Renault duo finished P8 and P9, Ocon finished ahead of Ricciardo only the second time this season. Vettel completed the top 10.

Raikkonen just missed out on points finishing 11th while his teammate Giovinazzi had to race without radio during the whole race, ultimately finishing 15th. Norris recovered to 13th after contact and damage with Stroll, one place ahead of Williams’ Russell in a well-deserved P14. Teammate Latifi finished last, ahead of Haas duo Magnussen and Grosjean. Only one car retired from the race, that of Stroll due to floor and car damage.

The race start was arguably the most hectic of the season as dark clouds loomed over the circuit with droplets appearing on the track. Hamilton started well but had an oversteer moment and lost places to Bottas and Sainz. Meanwhile, behind Verstappen and Perez touched, sending the Racing Point car spinning to the back of the grid. Behind, Raikkonen displayed superb skills to make up 10 places in the first lap to run P6. All medium-tyre runners were struggling with cold temperatures as they were taking time to warm-up.

By Lap 2, Sainz has overtaken Bottas for the lead as Norris too was running in P4. By Lap 6, Bottas overtook Sainz for the lead, Hamilton followed suit the next lap, settling in P2. By Lap 10, Bottas was leading, with Hamilton 2nd and Verstappen 3rd. Verstappen was beginning to struggle on the soft tyres due to graining as both the Mercedes cars pulled away. In the midfield, Ricciardo pit for medium tyres to undercut the likes of Gasly and Raikkonen. Stroll and Norris collided in Turn 1, as Stroll misjudged his closing speed from behind on Norris and turned in his path. Stroll was handed a 5-second penalty for causing a collision.

By Lap 15, Hamilton had started closing in on Bottas, the gap around 1.5s and coming down. On Lap 19, Hamilton made use of DRS to shoot past Bottas and take the lead as Bottas struggled for pace on his tyres. Verstappen pitted on Lap 23 for medium tyres but the damage had already been done as the leader was already 10sec ahead. Sainz and Gasly pitted on Lap 26 and 28 respectively for medium tyres, dropping behind a recovering Perez. The Mercedes duo and Leclerc were yet to pit as they ran in top-3 positions, while Ocon too was running in P5, yet to do a pit stop.

Leclerc pitted on Lap 34 bolting on a set of hard tyres, emerging in P4 as Verstappen slotted back in P3. Russell in his Williams ran in P7 for a brief amount of laps as after his pit stop he emerged outside of the top 10 on lap 37. Hamilton pitted on Lap 40 for hard tyres, Bottas doing the same on the next lap. Ocon pulled off a mammoth 53 lap stint on the mediums as he pitted and emerged with soft tyres. Similar to Perez who had bolted softs 8 laps prior. Unfortunately, for both the soft tyres did not work as Perez was overtaken by Gasly and Sainz in the dying laps and Ocon was unable to close the gap to Sainz in front of him.

Mercedes confirmed before the race weekend that they had stopped the development of the W11 and are focusing on next year’s car. They still maintain one-lap and race-pace advantage over Red Bull. Red Bull have closed that advantage with the help of new parts such as rear suspensions and a new front wing endplate. Ferrari has improved in the last couple of races, especially in the hands of Leclerc. Their race pace has improved as Leclerc managed to hold on to P4. They brought a new barge board package and a new diffuser for greater and efficient downforce generation. The upgrades have seemed to work, but remains to be seen if they can challenge McLaren, Renault and Racing Point consistently.

McLaren showed good one-lap and race pace this weekend. They were unable to capitalise fully as Norris’ race was compromised by the collision. Renault seemed to struggle here as they lost their one-lap pace, they couldn’t finish higher than P8. It was damage limitation for them. Racing Point were arguably the fastest midfield cars as evident by Perez’s recovery. If not for the Perez and Stroll entanglements, they could have got a solid result. AlphaTauri once again capitalised on their superior race pace as Gasly finished in P5, best of the rest. AlphaTauri still lack the one-lap pace that prevents them from starting in higher positions.

Alfa Romeo and Williams both showed good race pace and points potential, though in the end just falling short. Williams tried a new set of barge boards during free practice, remains to be seen if they will use it for the rest of the season. Haas once more had a mediocre race as they never really challenged for higher positions or points.

Earlier, Lewis Hamilton started from pole position and Bottas from P2 on the grid as Mercedes locked out the front row for the ninth time this season. Verstappen qualified in his customary P3 position, while a superb qualifying from Charles Leclerc saw him start P4. Sergio Perez qualified in P5, meanwhile, his returning Racing Point teammate Lance Stroll could only manage P12. P6 starter was Alex Albon and both the McLarens of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris occupied the fourth row of the grid. Pierre Gasly started in P9 as AlphaTauri teammate Daniil Kvyat only managed to start in P13. Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo lined up in P10, one place ahead of teammate Esteban Ocon. George Russell put in an impressive qualifying performance as he lined up P14 in his Williams, ahead of Sebastian Vettel in a Ferrari. Alfa Romeo’s of Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi started in P16 and P17 respectively. Haas duo of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen started in P18 and P19, the former ahead of latter. Rookie Nicholas Latifi lined up last.

The predicted fastest strategy was medium tyres to hard tyres as the soft tyres were prone to graining. Only Hamilton, Bottas and Leclerc started on mediums in the top 10.