F1, Mugello GP: Hamilton wins. Ferrari: Leclerc eighth, Vettel tenth

“I love this kind of racing,” said the six-time Mercedes world champion. Behind Valtteri Bottas and Alexander Albon in the only surviving Red Bull. Verstappen’s was silenced on the first lap, which remains a reliability issue for the Dutchman – the second in a row after Monza.

The opening carom that knocked out Latifi, Magnussen, Giovinazzi and Sainz was terrifying. The Spaniard who will lead next year Ferrari: «These are dangerous scenes, which remind me of very bad incidents from the past. I would not like to find myself in this situation again. On an old-school track that does not forgive the slightest mistake, an “old-fashioned” race was organized, an elimination race. Even Pierre Gasly, the Monza winner, lost. And Lance Stroll: the exit in the Arrabbiata curves at 280 km / h was very bad, probably due to a puncture caused by a part lost by his teammate Sergio Pérez.

Ferrari comes off the anniversary very badly, at the home circuit, where Leclerc and Vettel had conducted a test two months ago. Fifth place in qualifying was an illusion, which also continued into the first part of the race. Because number 16, taking advantage of other people’s troubles, had managed to slide behind the two Mercedes, maintaining the third position until the first restart from a standstill. The collapse was swift and inexorable: Charles was stripped by everyone and finished eighth only because Kimi Raikkonen was penalized 5 ” for an irregular entry into the pit stop. The boy had done everything well, had achieved the maximum, but with the distance he could not mask the macroscopic defects of the millennial Red.

He could not defend himself without weapons, because apart from the color of this car nothing ever changes: “When you have such a big problem – explains Binotto – you have to evaluate the interventions and think about how to correct them for the following year. We will bring small news to Sochi, but it will not make a difference. Moral: the car needs to be rebuilt, we will talk about it again in 2021: we realized immediately. Sebastian Vettel had committed his Sunday to a bad Saturday: he started 14th, advancing only four squares with eight cars retired. A disaster too.

The only merit to acknowledge is that it was away from bumper cars. After two zero GP, at least points and two cars reached the finish line. In such dark times, it wasn’t even a fact. But what sadness.