F1 2020: Lewis Hamilton wins Portugal Grand Prix

Mercedes Lewis Hamilton has become the most successful driver in terms of victories in Formula 1 history, after a dominant display at the Portuguese Grand prix saw him claim his 92nd victory from teammate Valtteri Bottas and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.

Having started from pole position, Hamilton’s victory looked in serious doubt after a dramatic opening lap that saw him get passed by both Bottas and the McLaren of Carlos Sainz – Sainz then taking the lead from Bottas a lap later, as the Mercedes pair struggled to get their medium tyres fired up.

Verstappen had had his own dramatic first lap, connecting with Sergio Perez and sending the Mexican spinning, forcing Racing Point into an early pit stop. Both drivers had a strong recovery though, Verstappen eventually climbing back into a comfortable third, while Perez made it up to P7 – the Mexican passed in the latter stages by Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc backed up his stunning P4 in qualifying with the same position in the race, Ferrari appearing to have cracked their recent race pace issues with a strong performance from the Monegasque. He finished ahead of the AlphaTauri of Gasly – the Frenchman driving an excellent race to take fifth – and one-time race leader Sainz in sixth.

Despite all that, the 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix will be remembered most of all for the moment where Lewis Hamilton became Formula 1’s most successful driver of all time in terms of victories – a mighty record that came after yet another mighty drive from the six-time World Champion.

 

F1 2020: Valtteri Bottas wins Russian Grand Prix

Mercedes Valtteri Bottas scored his second win of 2020 at the Russian Grand Prix, benefitting from a penalty for his pole-sitting teammate Lewis Hamilton that left the six-time champion third at the flag, as Max Verstappen claimed Red Bull’s first-ever podium at Sochi.

Hamilton began the race on the back foot, after a pair of practice start infringements on his laps to the grid led to him being handed a 10s penalty mid-race, ruling him out of contention for the win, as he came home in P3.

Bottas, meanwhile, had passed Verstappen for second at the race start, before benefitting from Hamilton’s penalty to enjoy an untroubled run to the chequered flag for the ninth win of his career, at the venue where he scored his first back in 2017. It would have been an important confidence booster for Bottas, too, with Finn’s previous victory having come at the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix back in July.

Behind the podium positions, a quiet but effective race for Racing Point’s Sergio Perez saw him come home fourth, while despite having a five-second penalty hanging over him for not running through the Turn 3 rejoining bollards after going off the track, Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo had enough pace in hand to maintain P5 at the flag, ahead of the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc in sixth. 

Esteban Ocon passed his Renault teammate at the start for P4 but eventually fell back to the seventh place he started the race in at the chequered flag, ahead of home hero Daniil Kvyat. Rounding out the top 10, a late stop from the second AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly allowed him to battle through to P9, the Frenchman passing the Red Bull of Alex Albon, who came home P10, having started P15 after receiving a five-race penalty for changing his gearbox.

 

F1 2020: Lewis Hamilton wins Spanish Grand Prix

Mercedes Lewis Hamilton executed a near-perfect race at the Spanish Grand Prix, leading every lap from pole to record his fifth Spanish Grand Prix win, his fourth victory of the season, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen coming home ahead of the sister Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas.

The seeds of Hamilton’s victory were sown by a strong start for him, as Bottas dropped from P2 to P4 off the line, before eventually recovering to third, while Verstappen jumped to second at the getaway, but ultimately wasn’t able to make any in-roads into Hamilton’s lead, as he finished 24s adrift.

Racing Point’s Sergio Perez crossed the line in fourth but dropped to fifth thanks to a five-second penalty for ignoring blue flags, allowing Lance Stroll to claim P4. Perez eventually slotted into fifth, ahead of the McLaren of Carlos Sainz – who maintained his 100% record of finishing in the points at his home race – and the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel, who benefitted from a late decision to switch him onto a one-stop strategy to come home in seventh.

 

He finished ahead of the second Red Bull of Alex Albon, the Thai driver hurt by having had to switch early to a set of hards, while the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly and the second McLaren of Lando Norris rounded out the top 10 – the expected strong race pace from Renault having failed to materialize on race day, as Daniel Ricciardo wound up 11th, with Esteban Ocon 13^th.

F1 2020: Lewis Hamilton wins Hungary Grand Prix

Mercedes Lewis Hamilton enjoyed a peerless run to his eighth Hungarian Grand Prix victory, winning out over the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, as he tied with Michael Schumacher’s record for the most number of wins at a single venue.

 

Starting from pole, Hamilton quickly surged into a comfortable lead in the early laps, before managing his pace over his rivals in the encounter at the Hungaroring, eventually taking the flag 8.7s ahead of Verstappen to seal his third win in a row at this race.

 

Verstappen himself overcame a poor qualifying that saw him start P7, and then an embarrassing crash into the Turn 12 wall on his lap to the grid that required some urgent repairs, to claim P2, the Dutchman holding off an attack by third-place Valtteri Bottas in the final stages of the race.

Racing Point’s Lance Stroll couldn’t convert his P3 grid position into the team’s first podium of the year as he came home a distant fourth. A late pass from Red Bull’s Alex Albon on the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel gave Albon – who started 13th – P5, although Red Bull was summoned to the stewards after the race for allegedly drying Albon’s grid spot ahead of the race start. Vettel held off the second Racing Point of Sergio Perez in the final laps of the race, as the Mexican finished seventh, having started fourth, while Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo made a monster 42-lap stint on mediums work to take eighth.

 

With the track greasy ahead of the race start but the rain had stopped falling, an inspired strategy from Haas helped Kevin Magnussen take the team’s first points of the year, with Magnussen and Romain Grosjean pitting for slicks at the end of the formation lap as their rivals started on intermediates on the drying track, with the Dane eventually taking P9 after a fine race. McLaren’s Carlos Sainz rounded out the top 10, thanks to a late-race pass on the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, who ended up 11th.

F1 2020: Lewis Hamilton wins Styrian Grand Prix

Following his sensational wet weather pole position on Saturday, Lewis Hamilton secured a comfortable victory in the Styrian Grand Prix, winning out over his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen – while Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc collided on Lap 1, causing race-ending damage for both.

 

Having been classified a disappointing P4 at last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, Hamilton was strong away from the start line, before spending the race managing the gap, first to Red Bull’s Verstappen then to Bottas, to secure his 85th Grand Prix win. Despite a stern defence from Verstappen, Bottas claimed second place from the Dutchman four laps from the end, last week’s Austrian Grand Prix winner limiting the damage in the drivers’ championship, which the Finn still heads.

Perez was classified sixth, ahead of teammate Lance Stroll in seventh, with Stroll having performed a late-race pass on the Renault of Daniel Ricciardo, who finished eighth. After a frustrating day, P3 starter Carlos Sainz was ninth, taking an extra point for fastest lap, while Alpha Tauri’s Daniil Kvyat rounded out the top 10.

 

Ferrari’s 2020 difficulties continued, meanwhile, with Charles Leclerc losing control of his SF1000 on the run up to Turn 3 on Lap 1 and slewing wildly into his teammate Vettel. Their contact wiped off Vettel’s rear wing, with both cars forced into retirement – the second time a Leclerc/Vettel collision has caused the team a double DNF.

F1 2019: Lewis Hamilton won Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

As the curtain came down on the 2019 Formula 1 season, Lewis Hamilton enjoyed a silky smooth evening beneath the floodlights at Abu Dhabi to record his 11th win of the season, ahead of the Red Bull of Max Verstappen and the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

Hamilton’s 50th pole-to-win of his career was arguably his most straightforward victory this season, as he comfortably eased away in the early part of the race before enjoying an untroubled run to the flag, to maintain Mercedes’ 100% win record at Yas Marina since 2014. It also meant that Hamilton tied his hero Ayrton Senna’s record for the 19th lights-to-flag victory of his career.

Behind the podium trio, Valtteri Bottas recovered from a back-of-the-grid start to end up fourth, less than a second behind Leclerc. A penultimate lap pass by Sebastian Vettel on Alex Albon gave the Ferrari driver fifth, while a fascinating last-lap scrap between Lando Norris and Sergio Perez saw Perez ultimately come out on top to claim ‘best of the rest’ in P7, ahead of Norris.

Daniil Kvyat was ninth for Toro Rosso, while Carlos Sainz also made a last lap pass, on Renault's Daniel Ricciardo, to take a point for P10 - enough to see him claim sixth in the drivers’ standings for 2019.

F1 2019: Valtteri Bottas wins Japanese Grand Prix

Valtteri Bottas became the first driver to win a Grand Prix at Suzuka from the second row of the grid, and the ecstatic Finn said it couldn’t have gone any better as Mercedes also secured their sixth consecutive constructor championship.

Formula One has had periods of team dominance but the achievement of Mercedes is unprecedented. The sixth team title matches that of Ferrari between 1999 and 2004 but – with Hamilton and Bottas extending their lead such that only they can win the drivers’ championship – a record‑breaking sixth double belongs to Mercedes.

Bottas has just kept his championship hopes alive but Hamilton remains on course to take a sixth of his own. His frustration with the team’s strategy swiftly turned to celebration and honour as he dedicated the title to Niki Lauda, Mercedes non-executive director who died in May this year.

The British driver leads Bottas by 64 points: 104 remain and he will take the championship if he is 78 in front after the Mexican Grand Prix. Bottas’s win was a controlled and impressive drive but it is Hamilton, with nine victories, who has done the damage this season and the vast majority of the previous five. He has taken four titles since 2014, when Mercedes emerged as pre-eminent in a formula defined by its engine as the turbo-hybrid era.

Ferrari showed exceptional pace over the single lap. Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc locked out the front row, with Bottas third and Hamilton fourth. Indeed had both the Ferrari drivers not once more made mistakes, Mercedes would surely have been denied their celebrations for now at least.

F1 2019: Lewis Hamilton wins Russian Grand Prix

Ferrari looked set to end Mercedes dominant run at the Sochi Autodrom, but in the space of a few seconds their hopes of victory vanished, with championship leader Lewis Hamilton seizing the advantage to seal a first Grand Prix win since the summer break.

Sebastian Vettel took a surprise lead at the start from third on the grid, leapfrogging pole-sitter and Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc and Mercedes' Hamilton, with it, soon emerging that Ferrari had plotted such a scenario pre-race as part of a plan to defend from Hamilton. It worked, with Leclerc slotting into second, but when Vettel was asked to hand the place back to his teammate, the four-time world champion kept his foot down. After much discussion, and some consternation from Leclerc on team radio, the red duo settled into a rhythm until the pit stops.

The Briton crossed the line to secure his ninth victory of the season, stretching his championship lead to 73 points – almost the equivalent of three race wins – with just five Grands Prix remaining. Bottas, having rebuffed Leclerc, ended up second to give Mercedes their fourth one-two in Sochi in six attempts. Leclerc completed the podium, failing in his bid to snatch the fastest lap of the race, with Max Verstappen in a lonely fourth place. His Red Bull teammate Alexander Albon pulled off a brilliant recovery from a pit lane start to rescue fifth, ahead of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz.

Racing Point’s Sergio Perez scored points for the third time in four races with seventh, with McLaren’s Lando Norris eighth. Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg completed the top 10, the former after having five seconds added to his race time for an off-track moment several laps before the flag. But the day belonged to Mercedes, who brilliantly took advantage of a supreme slice of luck to secure their eighth one-two of the season to edge closer to their sixth successive constructors’ championship title.