Multiple crashes mark Ferrari’s 1000th race and a record 90th win for Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton won the first-ever Grand Prix held at Mugello as Valtteri Bottas finished second and Alex Albon scored his maiden F1 podium. The 1000^thrace for Ferrari saw multiple car crashes and two red flags as Hamilton took the 90^th race win of his career, one behind Michael Schumacher.

By Malhaar Khaladkar

London, 19 Sept 2020: Qualifying saw Mercedes maintain their Saturday pace advantage as Hamilton qualified on pole and Bottas second. Max Verstappen and Alex Albon lined up astern of the Mercedes drivers in P3 & P4. Charles Leclerc managed to qualify P5 in an inferior Ferrari, ahead of the two Racing Points of Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll. Ricciardo wasP8 and Renault teammate Esteban Ocon in P10. McLaren’s Carlos Sainz qualified in P9. His teammate Lando Norris lined up in P11- missing out on Q3 for the first time this season. Daniil Kvyat started in P12, while his AlphaTauri teammate and surprise Monza race winner, Pierre Gasly could not get out of Q1 and settled for P16 on the grid. Kimi Raikkonen dragged his Alfa Romeo up to P13, his ex-teammate Sebastian Vettel could only manage to qualify his Ferrari in P14. Haas drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen qualified in 15th& 20th respectively. Antonio Giovinazzi was in P17 and the Williams duo of George Russell and Nicholas Latifi lined up in 18th& 19th.

P2 looked like the place to start from the grid as Bottas got a better start than Hamilton and used the slipstream to get ahead of the championship leader. Behind them, Verstappen too had a good start, but due to power unit issues bogged down and lost places. As the field approached turn 2, Sainz spun with contact from Stroll and Gasly was squeezed by Raikkonen and Grosjean. The trio of Raikkonen, Gasly and Grosjean collected Verstappen. Due to the contact Gasly and Verstappen were beached in the gravel trap. Raikkonen escaped with front wing damage and Grosjean survived but with lot of car damage resulting in downforce loss. Understandably, Verstappen showed frustration as this was his second consecutive DNF. Meanwhile Vettel had collected spun Sainz and damaged his front wing.

The safety car was called- which was red in colour as a tribute to Ferrari’s 1000th Grand Prix.  The race resumed on lap 7. The start/finish line is halfway down the straight on this circuit. Therefore, so as to not give slipstream to Hamilton, Bottas left it late for the restart. The middle of the pack accelerated as they pre-empted Bottas’s start. This resulted in a horrific crash which included Giovinazzi who reared into Magnussen and collected Latifi. Sainz could not evade Giovinazzi and crashed into him. Barely 3 corners of racing had taken place and the race was red flagged-second time in as many races.

The two Mercedes and Williams’ Russell changed to medium tyres as the field got ready for a second standing start. This time it was Bottas on pole and Hamilton in advantageous P2. Leclerc had made up to P3 before the safety car and red flag.

History repeated itself, Hamilton darting past Bottas into P1 as they exited turn 1. Behind them Leclerc was running in P3, Stroll P4, Ricciardo P5, Albon P6 and Perez in P7. As Leclerc’s tyres faded he fell down to P7. He pitted on lap 21 for hard tyres.

Stroll was in P3, in the running for a second consecutive podium. Renault pulled the trigger and boxed Ricciardo from P4 in an attemptto undercut Stroll. It worked as Stroll emerged behind Ricciardo on lap 30 after pitting for medium tyres. Meanwhile Perez and Norris had pitted on lap 27 & 28 respectively. Ahead Bottas was unable to close up to Hamilton and requested for an alternate tyre strategy. Due to vibrations on Bottas’s medium tyres Mercedes pitted him on lap 31 for hard tyres, subsequently pitting Hamilton for the same on lap 32. Bottas request was overruled by Mercedes as they had flashbacks to the British GP and tyre blowouts. As the race progressed Ricciardo maintained his P3 and Russell was running in P9, on the cusp of achieving his first career points.

The drama was not over yet. On lap 43 Stroll smashed into the barriers at turn 9, fortunately unhurt. The safety car was once more called to duty. The race was red flagged a second time as the damaged barrier had to be repaired. The whole grid bolted on soft tyres for a 12-lap sprint race in the end. This was the first race to see 2 red flags since 2016 Brazilian GP.

This time Bottas was in P2- prime position to take the lead as Hamilton was once again on pole for the third start. Hamilton had his best start of the race, as Bottas had the opposite and fell behind Ricciardo. Bottas was able to overtake the Renault on the next lap. Behind Ricciardo’s dream of a podium was shot down as Albon passed him for P3.

Hamilton won the race and with it took the fastest lap point as Bottas completed 1-2 finish for Mercedes. Albon achieved his first podium in F1, thanking Red Bull after the race for sticking with him. Ricciardo missed out on podium and unfortunately Ocon retired under the second red flag as his brakes overheated. Perez finished in P5, Norris had an uneventful race in P6 and Kvyat finished in P7. Leclerc finished in P8, Raikkonen in P9 due to a 5-second penalty because of entering the pit lane after the pit line.Vettel rounded of the top 10.Russell just missed out on his inaugural points in P11 and Grosjean finished last in P12. There were 8 car retirements in the race.

Mercedes still maintain pace advantage over Red Bull. Red Bull looked closer to Mercedes in terms of race pace, but due to Verstappen DNF, we do not know if Red Bull could have challenged for the race victory. Renault did not have the pace in qualifying as they could not find the optimum downforce set up. Their race pace was much better as Ricciardo might have got a podium had there not been the second red flag. McLaren performed below their expectations in qualifying and race as they finished behind Racing Point and Renault. Interesting to note, McLaren trialed Mercedes style thin nose cone in Friday practice. It remains to be seen if they will incorporate it permanently on their car.

Racing Point arrived at Mugello with significant upgrades around the bargeboard and sidepod area. The opening of the sidepods was overhauled, they start behind the mandatory crash structure for better airflow management. The sidepod shape changed too, they drooped down at the rear and made a sharper coke bottle shape to accelerate the airflow for greater downforce generation. This upgrade was worth three-tenths of a second (0.3s). Only Stroll had the package on his car because only one was available. After their surprise win, AlphaTauri slipped into their customary midfield position. Gasly underperformed & DNF’d while Kvyat made the most of red flags to finish in a respectable P7. Ferrari were disappointing in their 1000th GP as their race pace was slower than Alfa Romeo and Williams. Vettel barely managed to get to Q2 while Leclerc was overtaken quickly as he neither had straight line speed nor the tyres as he was unable to conserve them. Alfa Romeo and Williams can be encouraged as they showed better pace than Ferrari, especially in the latter stages of the race when tyre wear was a factor. Haas’s true pace could notbe seen as Magnussen retired and Grosjean had damage through which he lost 70 points of downforce.

Breaking story before the race weekend was that Vettel would be joining Racing Point next season (2021) as Sergio Perez was let go. It remains to be seen if Perez will drive for any team next season.