Lewis Hamilton wins Tuscan Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton wins the Tuscan Grand Prix in a Mercedes one-two, a chaotic Grand Prix with only 12 cars running at the end.
Despite the chaos, it was still a Mercedes one-two at the end, with Lewis Hamilton taking the win, Bottas in second and Red Bull’s Albon in third. But there was far more to the race than that.
At the start, Hamilton was overtaken by Bottas, but the race lasted no more than a few blinks of the eye after a crash between Gasly, Grosjean and Raikkonen, which also took out Max Verstappen, meaning a safety car before any racing had really happened.
Bottas was in front at the restart and bunched up the field behind, leading to Magnussen accelerating and then slowing, Latifi swerved to avoid him, Giovainazzi then bounced in to Magnussen, Sainz hit the back of the melee and was flung in to the air. No one was hurts, but cue another safety car.
At the restart it was Hamilton in front, and both Mercedes cars soon left the back behind, but as Bottas’ tyres started to go off he pitted, followed a lap later by Hamilton, with Mercedes instructing them to stay off the Mugello kerbs to save the new tyres.
That, you could have expected, would see a procession to the end, but more trouble came as Stroll hit the second Arrabbiata corner and had a puncture, with the race red flagged to repair the barrier he landed in.
At the final restart Bottas was overtaken by Ricciardo, but Bottas took the place back leaving Ricciardo to fight for third with Albon, but Albon had the pace to pass him with just three laps to go leaving Ricciardo to finish in fourth.
Behind the top four it was Perez in the Racing Point, Norris in the McLaren, Kvyat in the AlphaTauri, Leclerc in the Ferrari, Raikkonen in the Alfa Romeo and Vettel in the Ferrari.
Which means Ferrari actually managed to get both cars in the points. But only because almost half the field didn’t finish, with only Russell in the Williams and Grosjean in the Haas finishing behind Vettel.
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