Formula 1

STYRIAN GP : HAMILTON WINS RACE

Published

3 years ago

12/07/2020

Hamilton signs his first success of the season, 14 seconds ahead of his team-mate Bottas. Verstappen, third, failed to complete the fastest lap in the race.

Lewis Hamilton dominated the Styrian Grand Prix to take his 85th career win, as Mercedes recorded its first 1-2 finish of the season.

Both Ferrari drivers retired from the race after Charles Leclerc collided with Sebastian Vettel on the opening lap of the race at Turn 3, only adding to its season of woe.

Leclerc accepted blame for the incident and apologised to his team, who was hoping to gather data on upgrades it brought to the race weekend.

Max Verstappen couldn’t hold off Valtteri Bottas in the final laps of the race and had to concede second position to the Mercedes driver.

Bottas stayed out longer than Hamilton and Verstappen in front during his first stint and following his one and only pit stop, he hunted down Verstappen towards the end of the race, managing to overtake him on lap 67.

Behind, Alexander Albon crossed the line in fourth place, clashing with Sergio Perez in the final laps of the grand prix, with the Mexican picking up front wing damage.

Perez then began to drop off in pace and at the final corner, found himself being overtaken by Lando Norris, who had passed Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll only moments before.

On the penultimate lap of the race, Stroll launched an attack on Ricciardo at Turn 3 after many laps of following behind. Both drivers ran off the circuit, causing the stewards to launch an investigation.

Carlos Sainz was ninth for Ferrari after starting from third on the grid, while Daniil Kvyat rounded out the top ten, taking the final point for AlphaTauri.

Esteban Ocon was the only other retirement from the race besides the Ferraris, with Renault opting to retire the car with a suspected cooling problem while he was running high in the points.