Hamilton claims 90th F1 win in crazy stop-start Tuscan GP

Lewis Hamilton claimed the 90th victory of his Formula 1 career at a dramatic Tuscan Grand Prix that was suspended on two occasions and saw only 12 drivers finish.

F1’s first-ever race at Mugello lasted just two corners before a Safety Car was called due to a collision that took out both Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly, following contact with Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen.

The race was then red-flagged after a scary multi-car crash following the Safety Car restart which eliminated Carlos Sainz, Kevin Magnussen, Antonio Giovinazzi and Nicholas Latifi.

Valtteri Bottas had managed to get ahead of Hamilton at the initial start but Hamilton made amends for his sluggish initial getaway to sweep into the lead around the outside of Turn 1 at the second restart.

Hamilton had pulled into a comfortable lead following the pit stops before the race was halted for a second time on Lap 46 when Lance Stroll suffered a huge accident at the flat-out Arrabbiatas.

That resulted in a 14-lap sprint to the finish with the remaining 12 drivers all on Soft tyres, with Hamilton maintaining his lead as Bottas dropped behind Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo, though the Finn quickly reclaimed the position from Ricciardo into San Donato on the following tour.

Hamilton held off Bottas to score his sixth win in nine races at the start of the 2020 season to further enhance his championship lead over his teammate to 55 points.

Bottas ultimately trailed the Briton by 4.880s as Alex Albon surged past Ricciardo late on to claim a long-awaited maiden F1 podium for the Red Bull driver and deny the Australian a first rostrum appearance for Renault.

Ricciardo had to settle with a strong fourth ahead of the sole-remaining Racing Point of Sergio Perez, McLaren’s Lando Norris in sixth, and AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat in seventh.

Charles Leclerc finished eighth as Ferrari ended a run of two blank races with a double points finish as Sebastian Vettel took 10th on a weekend the Scuderia celebrated its 1000th GP.

Former Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen took the chequered flag ahead of Leclerc but ended up sandwiched between Leclerc and Vettel after a five-second time penalty for entering the pit lane when it was closed was applied.

George Russell was left to rue a poor start at the third restart as he narrowly missed out on points but recorded his best-ever F1 result in 11th, ahead of Romain Grosjean, the final classified runner in 12th.