Motorsport journalist and podcaster
Formula One’s first visit to Mugello didn’t disappoint, serving up a chaotic grand prix sure to be one of this strange season’s most enduring memories.
On first reading the composition of the podium — two Mercedes drivers and a Red Bull Racing car — is unremarkable, but this was a siege of a grand prix, with only 12 cars made it to the chequered after almost two and a half hours and two red-flag restarts.
Three huge crashes defined this race. The first came on lap one when Kimi Raikkonen rear-ended Max Verstappen into the gravel and retirement at Luco, the Finn having made contact with Pierre Gasly and Romain Grosjean. Gasly was momentarily airborne and was too eliminated from the race.
Lewis Hamilton is one win short of equalling Michael Schumacher’s F1 victory record after triumphing at a chaotic Tuscan Grand Prix, while Alex Albon became Thailand’s first podium-getter with a strong third place.
F1 first visit to Mugello was high attrition, featuring two red flag interruptions and several multi-car crashes that left only 12 drivers still running when the chequered flag fell.
Hamilton wielded the disruption to his advantage. After losing pole to fast-starting teammate Valtteri Bottas on the first lap, he was able to seize back the lead at the first standing restart to break the Finn’s challenge.
Lewis Hamilton is one win away from Michael Schumacher’s all-time victory record after claiming his 90th F1 triumph in a marathon Tuscan Grand Prix at Mugello.
Continue reading on RACERFormula One’s first visit to Mugello delivered the same old result: Lewis Hamilton leading a comfortable Mercedes front-row lockout with Max Verstappen leading the Red Bull Racing charge from third.
The rapid bends of the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello have proved universally popular among drivers as an ‘old-school’ circuit. The track has a real flow to it, aided in part by the varying elevation, and the combination of abrasive tarmac, gravel run-off and close barriers makes this an all-round test of driving ability.
In some resects the 2020-spec F1 car is almost too fast for the circuit. So much is flat out — almost the entire middle sector is open throttle — that the driver can only make a meaningful difference to performance at the first and third splits.