THE TUSCAN GP IN 3 KEY MOMENTS
1 Close but no cigar (again) for Bottas
Another Formula 1 race, another Lewis Hamilton victory. So far so typical for the pandemic-defying grand prix scene of 2020. Except this was no typical F1 race, and winning it was an achievement Hamilton himself said required effort like no other.
The chaos of the first lap, the Safety Car restart and a second standing restart following Lance Stroll’s huge accident, combined with relentless weekend-long pressure from the other Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas, made F1’s first race at the Motogp mecca of Mugello, for Hamilton “physically and mentally one of the most challenging days I’ve experienced”.
Since his outstanding start to the season in Austria, Bottas has been relatively subdued. Apart from the second Silverstone event, he’s consistently been bested by Hamilton in qualifying – albeit narrowly sometimes – and watched Lewis’s points lead expand as races have been lost to mistakes, inferior tyre management and bad luck.
And luck was certainly not with Bottas at Mugello either. Here on the insanely fast highspeed, high-commitment sweeps of the Ferrariowned circuit, it looked as though Valtteri really had Hamilton’s number. Bottas was fastest in every practice session, forcing Hamilton to work like he’s never worked before. Hamilton admitted he was “struggling to find the limit in certain sectors” – mainly the sector one chicanes – and that “Valtteri was miles ahead in some of those areas”.
Hamilton finally moved clear, by less than a tenth of a second, in Q2 and Q3. Bottas felt Esteban Ocon’s late spin in Q3 cost him pole, but Hamilton and Verstappen both went slower on clear laps, suggesting it would have been difficult for Bottas.
But then Hamilton made a poor start from pole – “I just went too deep and got wheelspin” – handing Bottas the lead. Max Verstappen’s Red Bull would also have passed Lewis but for an electrical glitch on the Honda engine that robbed Max of power and plunged him into the mid-pack, making him a sitting duck when Romain Grosjean, Pierre Gasly and Kimi Räikkönen came together, the consequence of which was Kimi accidentally punting Verstappen out of the race at Turn 2. Max called it a “shit show”.
Bottas managed the Safety Car restart as well as he could – the mayhem behind was caused mainly by several drivers misjudging the pace: 12 received warnings after an FIA investigation postrace and Bottas was not among them – but the red flag stoppage required after Antonio Giovinazzi, Carlos Sainz, Kevin Magnussen and Nicholas Latifi were all wiped out handed Hamilton a reprieve.
This time Hamilton got his car properly hooked up at the standing restart, and used the slipstream to make a slingshot pass around Bottas at Turn 1. This move effectively settled the race. Subsequent Mercedes concerns about the integrity of the hard compound front Pirelli tyres across kerbs were alleviated by a second red flag period, allowing both cars to fit softs for the final dash to the flag.
After the second restart, Bottas made a ballsy pass around Daniel Ricciardo at Turn 1 – without using DRS – to reclaim second, then tried to turn the screw on Lewis, but to no avail. Bottas “tried everything” but once again came up short.
2 Breakthrough result can’t hide the mountain Albon still must climb
Max Verstappen was in among the two Mercedes in practice, but unsurprised to find himself cut adrift come qualifying. He would have been nailed-on to complete the podium under normal circumstances, but his first-lap elimination created a multi-car fight for third, a battle eventually won by his Red Bull team-mate Alex Albon.
Charles Leclerc deserves honourable mention for qualifying fifth and running third in Ferrari’s 1000th F1 race, before the draggy SF1000 regressed to its natural level as a marginal points contender. Leclerc’s heroics deserved better than eighth.
Ricciardo’s slippery Renault, Stroll’s updated ‘Pink Mercedes’ and Albon’s underpowered Red Bull-honda took up the fight, with Ricciardo gaining the upper hand at the first round of pitstops, made under normal racing conditions. Stroll was coming back at Ricciardo when the Racing Point suffered what looked like a left-rear puncture at the fastest part of the circuit, pitching Stroll into a frightening accident.
The final restart following another red flag period to clean up that mess brought Albon back into play. After Ricciardo’s brief cameo in second, Dan fell back into the Red Bull’s clutches and was overtaken with a committed pass around the outside at Turn 1.
“Thanks for sticking with me” Albon told his team as they congratulated him on a breakthrough result. But unless Alex can find a way to get more comfortable with the sort of instability that Verstappen barely notices inside the RB16, it’s difficult to see how Albon can ever truly come to terms with his prodigious team-mate.
Albon has identified that Max is exceptional at driving “very understeery cars”. It’s the ability to manipulate the brakes and deal with the instability created by such understeer that makes Verstappen (and the likes of Alonso and Leclerc for that matter) so tough to beat in temperamental cars.
3 Monza heroes all end up zeroes
This was a terrible weekend for the drivers who visited the podium at Monza.
Italian GP winner Pierre Gasly failed even to escape Q1 at Mugello, before crashing out on the first lap after getting pincered between Romain Grosjean and Kimi Räikkönen.
Gasly blamed a set-up error combined with running out of recovered energy deployment well before the line for his qualifying early bath. “It just shows the reality and where we are in this midfield,” he said. “Last week was exceptional. In this midfield it is so tight, there is no room for errors.”
Mclaren expected to do well again on such a high-speed track but was well off the pace owing to the MCL35’S sensitivity to wind. Sainz spun on lap one after a brush with Stroll and was wiped out in the frightening Safety Car restart accident – and along with Ricciardo, Albon, Sergio Pérez, Lando Norris, Ocon, Daniil Kvyat, Magnussen, Latifi, Giovinazzi, Stroll and George Russell was warned by the FIA for failing to maintain consistent speed before the line.
Norris upheld Mclaren honour with a battling drive to sixth, while Stroll was in contention for another podium until his unfortunate shunt at the second Arrabbiata right-hander.
Amid the chaos, it looked as though Russell might nick his maiden points finish for Williams, but was undone in his personal battle with the Ferraris of Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel by making a pitstop just before the second red flag, then a poor restart. Russell repassed Grosjean but finished 2.5s behind Vettel. George called the outcome “heart-breaking”.