[ad_1]
LONDON: Lewis Hamilton celebrated his 90th Formula One victory, at a distance from the all-time record of Ferrari’s great Ferrari, Michael Schumacher, after a crazy Tuscan Grand Prix on Sunday (September 13) that had to stop and restart twice.
Six-time world champion’s Finnish teammate Valtteri Bottas completed the Mercedes double in a crash-filled race at the Ferrari-owned Mugello circuit north of Florence in central Italy.
Red Bull’s British-born Thai driver Alexander Albon, whose Dutch teammate Max Verstappen retired on the gravel after a second corner collision, took third place for his first F1 podium of his career.
Hamilton’s sixth victory in nine races this season put him 55 points ahead of Bottas, with eight rounds remaining, and the Brit also took an extra point for the fastest lap at a circuit making his F1 debut.
“It was a bit groggy. It was like three races in one day,” gasped Hamilton, who finished 4,880 seconds ahead of Bottas for a record 222 points in a race with three standing starts.
“All those restarts, the focus that is needed during that time, it’s very, very difficult,” said the Briton, who started from pole but lost to Bottas initially.
He turned the tables on the first standing restart and retained the lead on the second.
The race was Ferrari’s 1,000th championship grand prix, but the best the sport’s most successful team could achieve was eighth for Charles Leclerc, while his teammate Sebastian Vettel finished tenth.
RICCIARDO CUARTO
Australian Daniel Ricciardo was fourth for Renault, after looking good for a first podium since joining the French team from Red Bull at the end of 2018, with Racing Point’s Sergio Perez from Mexico fifth and McLaren’s Lando Norris sixth.
Mercedes, celebrating its 100th victory in the modern era, is now 152 points clear of second-placed Red Bull in the constructors’ standings.
The race came to a halt eight laps after a collision between stragglers who accelerated too early when the safety car had taken off with Bottas in the lead and controlling the pace.
Debris spread down the main straight after McLaren’s Carlos Sainz squeezed into the rear of Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi with Haas’s Kevin Magnussen and Williams’s Nicholas Latifi as well. None were injured.
“Everyone in front of me thought the race was going and we were all full blast until someone realized the race was not running,” Sainz said.
“It’s definitely not a pleasant feeling to do 280 km / h and suddenly find three cars in the middle of the straight.”
The safety car had initially been deployed after Italian Grand Prix winner Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri was thrown into Verstappen’s car after coming into contact with Romain Grosjean’s Haas and Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo.
The retirement was Verstappen’s second in a row and his third of the season.
The front wing of Vettel’s Ferrari was also damaged in contact with Sainz, his replacement on the Italian team next year.
The race was red-flagged again with 13 laps remaining when Canadian Lance Stroll crashed into his Racing Point at the second corner of Arrabbiata after a puncture, leaving the car wrecked.
This time Ricciardo snatched second place from Bottas on the restart only to be retaken by the Finn. Then Albon passed it with eight laps to go.
The race, the first of the COVID-ravaged season to have a limited crowd, was the second in a row to receive a red flag and the first since Brazil 2016 to have two such stoppages.
Only 12 drivers finished, with Daniil Kvyat of AlphaTauri seventh and Raikkonen ninth after a five-second penalty.
Williams’ George Russell, still without a point in F1, raced to eighth and was in scoring position when the race was stopped a second time, taking away his hard-won lead. He finished eleventh.
