The 70th Anniversary race was incredibly unpredictable, with tyre problems occurring up and down the grid. However, Max Verstappen managed his tyres beautifully to take the first non-Mercedes victory of 2020. Lewis Hamilton claimed 2nd after a late overtake on team-mate Valtteri Bottas while Charles Leclerc finished a solid 4th.
Race Report:
Despite cloudy weather earlier in the day, temperatures reached a high of 30 degrees, which many teams were predicting throughout the weekend. This meant the focus on tyres had been validated.
Valtteri Bottas had a superb start, but had to defend immediately from his his charging team mate. Max Verstappen managed to leapfrog Nico Hulkenberg from the start but behind, drama was unfolding. Sebastian Vettel’s torrid time continued with a spin through the first corner, placing him last. The error was unforced and he almost collected the McLaren of Carlos Sainz. Bottas held the lead for the opening laps of the race, ahead of Hamilton and Verstappen. The race began to settle down as strategy now took control.
Alexander Albon pitted first, a surprising 7 laps into the race. The team attempting to get him out of traffic and into clear air. Pierre Gasly followed suit a lap later, forcing the hands of others around him. Verstappen managed to keep within touching distance within the Mercedes and crept into DRS territory on lap 12. His engineers were not impressed, pleading with him to back off to save tyres. Yet, the Dutchman did not comply. Bottas came in on lap 14 putting huge pressure on Hamilton behind, who’s rear tyres were starting to fall apart. Hamilton did stop a lap later, but came out almost 4 seconds behind his team mate while Verstappen took the lead.
However, Mercedes again appeared to be in trouble as the Silver Arrows started to struggle with their tyres. Despite pitting, Verstappen was still managing to lap faster than the chasing pair. He eventually pitted for the mediums on lap 27 and came out just behind Bottas, but immediately went on the attack. There was a supreme piece of driving between the pair as they went side-by-side through Luffield, Verstappen retaking the lead.
There was an angry altercation from Vettel over the radio, in which he blamed the team for lack of performance. Meanwhile his team-mate managed numerous fastest laps attempting to catch up to the Racing Points in 4th and 5th. Daniel Ricciardo had high hopes for the race, but spun during a battle on lap 32, placing him way back down the grid. He wouldn’t break back in to the points.
Verstappen was given the command to increase the gap as much as possible in an attempt to place himself clear. However, Verstappen and Bottas pit at the same time on lap 33, both coming out on the hard tyre for their final stop. Despite contemplating a 1-stop strategy, Hamilton was forced to pit on lap 42 on to hard tyres, this dropped him down to 4th, behind Leclerc, with 10 laps to go.
Despite catching, Hamilton was stuck behind Leclerc and lost a lot of time to the leaders. He eventually made it through with both cars side by side through Stow. The Mercedes were given clearance to race with 3 laps to go and they had a tense battle through the first sector on lap 50. Hamilton won out, but was too far to challenge Verstappen for the win. As the race drew to a close, Leclerc managed to complete his 1-stop strategy and came through in a very respectable 4th. Alexander Albon had a superb recovery drive to 5th while the Racing Points finished in formation. Hulkenberg pitted late, conceding his place to Stroll, but still managed to take 6 points on a season where he wasn’t supposed to race at all.
Overall, the 70th anniversary had a bit of everything, drama, strategy, superb overtakes and lots of on-track entertainment. A race that was fitting to reflect 70 years of Formula 1.
- Verstappen
- Hamilton +11.326
- Bottas +19.231
- Leclerc +29.298
- Albon +39.146
- Stroll +42.538
- Hulkenberg +55.951
- Ocon +64.773
- Norris +65.544
- Kvyat +69.669
- Gasly +70.652
- Vettel +73.370
- Sainz +74.070
- Ricciardo +1lap
- Raikkonen +1lap
- Grosjean +1lap
- Giovinazzi +1lap
- Russell +1lap
- Latifi +1lap
- Magnussen DNF
Featured Image Credit: F1.com
