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Sunday 01 November 2020
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton wins what ended up being a chaotic race at Imola. Sebastian Vettel has been driving as far for a long time as never before this season, and then a failed pit stop puts him back. Mercedes celebrates the constructors’ world championship ahead of schedule.
Lewis Hamilton has broken another Formula 1 record from the Michael Schumacher era with series champion Mercedes. With his ninth win of the season, the World Championship leader led the Silver Arrows to the seventh consecutive constructors’ title ahead of schedule. Schumacher once won the team championship six times in a row with Ferrari at best.
With the 93rd Grand Prix, Hamilton is also very close to his seventh World Championship, and in two weeks in Turkey he could catch up with Schumacher here. Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas, who had started from pole position, finished second at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. The Finn damaged his car early on, but benefited from the final tire blow from Red Bull driver Max Verstappen. Daniel Ricciardo drove third in the Renault.
Pit stop costs Vettel points
In the overall standings, Hamilton is now 85 points ahead of Bottas with four runs to play. For Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari’s third home game in Italy this year was also a nuisance. After the disappointment in qualifying with the 14th starting position, he delayed changing tires a lot and was therefore even fourth. But then his pit crew made a big mistake and it took him 13.1 seconds to come to a stop, ten seconds longer than necessary. So the burlap lost the points in twelfth place.
The guest appearance near Bologna was only a brief visit for Formula 1. Due to high stress levels in Corona’s emergency season, the racing series had dispensed with the usual Friday training and was only driving on Saturdays and Sundays. Anyway, the spectators had been suspended for a short time, so the queen class turned around on their return to Imola after 14 years in front of empty stands.
However, the drivers enjoyed the comeback at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari. “There is a lot of history, good and bad. Everyone who follows Formula 1 knows Imola,” said four-time world champion Vettel before the start. Especially the black weekend of 1994 with the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger has been burned deep in the memory of motorsport fans. Since then, the course has been rebuilt several times and is now much safer. At the same time, however, overtaking is extremely difficult with modern cars. This resulted in a long and rather tense Grand Prix, which at times resembled a procession.
Pneumatic Shock Absorber for Verstappen
At the start, Bottas maintained his pole position, which he had taken the day before on the last attempt. His teammate Hamilton has likely cursed his “weak lap” of qualifying again after the first few meters. He couldn’t get away from the dirty side of the road and lost second place to Verstappen. After that, the action was limited to the end.
So once again it was a matter of strategy and luck in the races. Verstappen took the first step and changed the tires after 19 laps. Now Hamilton felt his opportunity after he simply couldn’t get past the Dutchman. “I will drive faster, I will not let myself in,” the defending champion radioed at the command post. Instead, Mercedes immediately ordered the leading Bottas to pit.
As expected, the Finn was back on track before Verstappen, but now Hamilton was in the lead. And the superstar kept his promise, expanding his lead with fast laps. When Esteban Ocon had to park his smoky Renault on the grass and the virtual safety car briefly slowed down the field, the preliminary decision was made. Hamilton got new tires and was the first to return.
Bottas found it difficult to stay ahead of Verstappen because his Mercedes had been abused from the start. The Red Bull driver passed on lap 43. But the joy lasted only nine laps. Then Verstappen turned on the gravel with a blown tire. The next phase of the safety car once again caused a frenzy. Williams’ first driver George Russell took off flying, shortly after Lance Stroll downed a member of the Racing Point pit crew. Hamilton was only able to get a new set of tires late, but he still stayed in front. A little later, the next double success for Mercedes and another title was certain.
