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F1 PIX: Hamilton takes 90th win at dramatic Tuscan GP

Last updated on: September 14, 2020 20:37 IST

Images from the Tuscan F1 Grand Prix held at at Mugello, Scarperia e San Piero in Tuscany, Italy, on Sunday.

Race winner Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes GP celebrates on the podium

IMAGE: Race winner Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes GP celebrates on the podium. Photograph: Jenifer Lorenzini - Pool/Getty Images

Lewis Hamilton celebrated the 90th win of his Formula One career, one short of Michael Schumacher's all-time record, after a crazy crash-strewn Tuscan Grand Prix on Sunday that was twice stopped and re-started.

 

The six-times world champion's Finnish team mate Valtteri Bottas completed the Mercedes one-two at the Ferrari-owned Mugello circuit in central Italy.

Red Bull's British-born Thai driver Alexander Albon, whose Dutch team mate Max Verstappen retired in the gravel after a second corner collision, took third place for his first career F1 podium.

Action from the Tuscan F1 GP

IMAGE: Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Renault's Daniel Ricciardo in action during the race. Photograph: Miguel Medina/Pool via Reuters

"It was all a bit of a daze. It was like three races in one day," gasped Hamilton, who finished 4.880 seconds clear of Bottas for a record 222nd points finish in a race with three standing starts.

"All those restarts, the focus that's needed during that time, it's really, really hard," he said.

The race was Ferrari's 1,000th championship grand prix but the best the sport's most successful team could manage was eighth for Charles Leclerc.

Hamilton's sixth win in nine races this season sent him 55 points clear of Bottas, with eight rounds remaining, and the Briton also took an extra point for fastest lap.

Mercedes, celebrating their 100th win in the modern era, are now 152 points clear of second-placed Red Bull in the constructors' standings.

AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly in the gravel trap after crashing out of the race during the Tuscan F1 Grand Prix at Mugello, Scarperia e San Piero in Italy on Sunday

IMAGE: AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly in the gravel trap after crashing out of the race during the Tuscan F1 Grand Prix at Mugello, Scarperia e San Piero in Italy on Sunday. Photograph: Luca Bruno/Pool via Reuters

Earlier, the race was first stopped eight laps in after a mass-collision among backmarkers when the safety car, deployed at the end of the opening lap, headed back into the pits.

It was red-flagged again with 13 laps remaining when Canadian Lance Stroll crashed his Racing Point after an apparent puncture.

The race was stopped and then re-started on Sunday after crashes and two safety car deployments in the space of eight laps.

Debris was scattered across the straight after Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi, McLaren's Carlos Sainz, Haas's Kevin Magnussen and Williams' Nicholas Latifi collided as the race re-started following a first safety car period.

Valtteri Bottas had been leading for Mercedes, with team mate Lewis Hamilton second, and controlling the pace.

As the Finn prepared to accelerate away, the back-markers reacted as if the leaders had already re-started. Sainz hit the back of Giovinazzi's car as the Alfa swerved.

"I think people were going before you'd gone," Mercedes told Bottas.

McLaren's Spanish driver Carlos Sainz climbs out of his car after a the collision 

IMAGE: McLaren's Spanish driver Carlos Sainz climbs out of his car after a the collision. Photograph: Peter Fox/Getty Images

Sainz reported that he and the others were OK. "The crash was really scary," he said.

"It felt like at the back of the grid where I was that everyone in front of me thought the race was going and we were all flat out until someone realised the race was not on," added the Spaniard.

"The speeds we were going at were very, very big so the crash I had could have been much worse if one car had been sideways on the main straight, I think it's something to learn from here.

"It's definitely not a nice feeling to do 280kph and suddenly find three cars in the middle of the straight."

The safety car was immediately deployed again and the race then halted before a standing re-start.

The safety car had been deployed after the opening lap when Pierre Gasly, shock winner of last Sunday's Italian Grand Prix at Monza for AlphaTauri, was launched into the air and took out Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

It was the second race in a row to be red-flagged.

Renault said Esteban Ocon had also been retired due to overheating brakes.

Only 13 cars remained in the race.

Source: REUTERS
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