Lap 26/59 Leclerc’s move to the hard tyres has the desired effect. He zooms past Grosjean. He wasn’t happy with the old ones …
Formula 1
(@F1)LAP 21/22:
Leclerc is passed by first Albon, then Perez.
The Ferrari driver radios his team 📻
“Those tyres are ****** minus 2. As quick as we can get on the other set would be good”He pits, and returns to the track in P13#TuscanGP 🇮🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/skdNk5kzW9
Lap 25/59 Hamilton says he is struggling a bit with grip, on the medium tyres. Bottas is on the same, while the next six are on softs.
Lap 24/59 Hamilton’s lead over Bottas remains at 2sec, while Stroll is a further 12sec back, with Ricciardo on his heels.
Lap 23/59 Stroll is in third, after his podium finish at Monza, but many are unimpressed. “Stroll is lucky to keep his seat at Racing Point,” Malcom Wei says by email. “He is mediocre to the last degree compared with Perez, and were it not for the fact that his rich dad owns the team, he’d be the one replaced by Vettel next year. Hopefully, Aston Martin Racing will realize next year that Vettel and Perez would’ve been a much better pairing than Vettel and Stroll. Sebastian deserves someone who can be competitive with him, not someone who hasn’t gotten a single podium since his Williams days.”
Lap 22/59 Leclerc is a sitting duck. Perez, who was so easily passed by Albon just a couple of laps ago, flies past Leclerc. The Ferrari driver pits to go on to hard tyres.
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Laps 21/59 The current top five is …
Hamilton
Bottas
Stroll
Ricciardo
Albon
Lap 20/59 Leclerc is going backwards. The Ferraris are so slow on teh straaights and Albon roars past into fifth. The dream is fading at Mugello.
Lap 19/59 Ricciardo is absolutely flying. He roars up to the rear of Leclerc and then swoops past with ease. That was pure DRS, and painful for the Ferrari fans in the stands.
Lap 17/59 Stroll overtakes Leclerc to move in to the final podium place, while Albon whips past Perez into sixth.
Lap 17/59 Game on for Ferrari! Vettel surges past Raikonnen on the outside to go into 11th. Leclerc continues to hold off Stroll in third.
Lap 16/59 Stroll attacks Leclerc on the outside but the Racing Point closes the door.
Lap 15/59 Ricciardo swoops past Perez into fifth on the home straight. That looked very easy. Now the Australian has Stroll in his sights.
Lap 14/59 Vettel is last but one in 12th place, but Leclerc is going well in third. Is a podium position possible at Ferrari’s home track in their 1000th race? There’s along way to go.
Lap 13/59 Hamilton posts the fastest lap, and opens up a 2sec gap on Bottas.
Lap 12/59 Russell gets past Raikonnen and is back up into 10th, his position at the restart. Can the Briton win his first championship point?
Lap 11/59 Hamilton’s car was smoking at the restart but he picked up Bottas’s slipstream and his teammate was no match for his speed.
Lap 10/59 Leclerc is in third, Stroll is fourth and Perez is fifth.
Third restart
Lewis Hamilton roars away and overtakes Bottas at the first corner. Revenge for the first start.
Chris Pollard is a Sergio Pérez fan. “Racing Point’s treatment of Pérez is shameful,” he emails. “Invoking a blatantly unfair clause, which was only triggered because of coronavirus-related circumstances, and nothing to do with personal performance, is cynical and selfish. Lawrence Stroll is turning Formula One into a nepotistic circus. Lance Stroll would not hold down a seat in any decent team, and he’s only there because daddy is paying for the team. Lawrence Stroll needs to play the game fairly, or get out of Formula One. This isn’t his personal toy.
“No one is going to take Lance Stroll seriously until he has the guts to walk away from this gravy train, and prove himself in a team on the basis of his ability, rather than his family DNA.”
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We went three years without a red flag, and now have had two in the last two races. Only 13 cars will restart the race this time. We’re almost ready for the third attempt to start this race, the second from the grid. How many will make it to the chequered flag?
Thankfully all the drivers seemed to have walked away unhurt. Sainz seemed to have injured his hand, but he says it’s nothing serious …
Im OK and looks like everyone is OK and that’s the main thing because the crash was very scary. We were racing and suddenly looks like we weren’t racing. I started braking and by the time I saw everything it was too late. It’s something to learn from here because its not a nice feeling to do 280kmh and suddenly find three cars stopped in the middle of the track.
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All the cars have now been recovered from the track, but there is lots of damage to report. Leclerc has had a change of tyres. Ocon’s brakes were on fire so the team are checking with the FIA what they are allowed to replace. Russell, Raikkonen and Grosjean’s cars are all being furiously worked on.
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Verstappen is pretty phlegmatic after his third DNF of the season. “On the formation lap the engine stalled,” says the Red Bull driver. “Same problem as in Monza I suppose. I had a good launch, went round Lewis but then had no speed.” He adds that if he hadn’t been hit from behind he would have had to retire anyway.
Latifi, Magnussen, Giovinazzi and Sainz are now out of the race, along with Gasly and Verstappen. That means the top two from last week’s Italian Grand Prix are no longer with us here. It looks like there will be a standing start now, mercifully given what’s just happened.
Red flag after huge pile-up at the restart
“That was stupid from whoever is at the front,” Grosjean says down the radio. “Do they want to kill us or what.” There are only 14 cars left in the race after another huge pile-up. Bottas left it to the last second to speed off after the safety car, but the cars at the back had already started racing, and had nowhere to go.
Drives crash. Photograph: Claudio Giovannini/AFP/Getty Images
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Lap 7/59 Bottas bolted away at the restart but there’s a huge crash at the back. There is debris everywhere. The safety car is back out.
We are close to a restart, will Hamilton be able to snatch back the lead?
“I’ve got no power,” Verstappen shouted down the radio as he was swallowed up by the cars behind him before the first corner. It got worse when Raikkonen ploughed into the back of him. Hamilton had no answer to Bottas, who almost pointed his way past the world champion before racing into the lead. We’re still awaiting the restart, but this looks like being some race.
Gasly and Verstappen out of the race
Gasly tangled with Raikkonen off the start, Sainz spun and Verstappen was rear ended after struggling off the start, maybe due to the pre-race issues he had.
Lap 1/59 Bottas gets an excellent start and flies past Hamilton off the grid. Carlos Sainz spins, and Max Vertappen is into the gravel and out of the race. The safety car is out. What a dramatic start.
Verstappen in the gravel. Photograph: Clive Mason – Formula 1/Getty Images
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The drivers are on the practice lap. One man to watch out for is Sergio Perez, who looked fast in practice after losing his Racing Point ride for next season to Sebastian Vettel. He was not happy about how he found out. How will he respond today?
Bottas leads the field. Photograph: Clive Mason – Formula 1/Getty Images
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Red Bull have worked their magic and it looks like Verstappen will be on the start line. That’s great news for the race. The young Dutchman is the sort of driver they love in Ferrari country.
Formula 1
(@F1)Looks like Max’s car is ok – he’s being strapped into the cockpit 👍
The start is moments away! 🙌#TuscanGP 🇮🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/VPCel5HMzS
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A reminder of the standings in the drivers’ championship …
1 Lewis Hamilton 164
2 Valtteri Bottas 117
3 Max Verstappen 110
4 Lance Stroll 57
5 Lando Norris 57
6 Alexander Albon 48
7 Charles Leclerc 45
8 Pierre Gasly 43
9 Carlos Sainz 41
10 Daniel Ricciardo 41
11 Sergio Perez 34
12 Esteban Ocon 30
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Max Verstappen has a problem and thee mechanics are rushed into action. It looks like the engine overheated on the reconnaissance laps.
There is a strong headwind down the straight which may give Bottas and the Red Bulls a chance to attack Hamilton off the start. The championship leader admits it could be a factorr. “It is not going to be great,” he tells Sky Sports F1. “But I don’t allow myself to be worried. What will be will be. The wind is definitely gonna make it harder today. I just hope everyone stays safe.”
Mugello has 2,800 fans at the track today, as spectators make a welcome return to F1, but what can the drivers expect? The 3.26-mile circuit is rapid, and Lewis Hamilton has warned the 59 laps will provide a gruelling challenge. Mark Webber, the nine-time grand prix winner said, did not pull any punches in his assessment …
Not one driver’s head is going to stay on around that track. Their necks are going to snap in half. It’s so, so quick
This is a special day for Ferrari, and their contribution to F1 has been honoured at this race. For the romantics out there Giles Richards’ interview with Piero Ferrari is well worth a read …
Valtteri Bottas was the dominant force during practice at Mugello, but Lewis Hamilton did some extra homework on Friday night and snatched pole on Saturday. The Red Bulls are waiting to pounce, while Pierre Gasly will start in a disappointing 16th after his maiden grand prix win at Mona a week ago. This is the full grid …
1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes
2 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Mercedes
3 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull
4 Alexander Albon (Tha) Red Bull
5 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari
6 Sergio Perez (Mex) Racing Point
7 Lance Stroll (Can) Racing Point
8 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Renault
9 Carlos Sainz (Spa) McLaren
10 Esteban Ocon (Fra) Renault
11 Lando Norris (Gbr) McLaren
12 Daniil Kvyat (Rus) Scuderia AlphaTauri
13 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Alfa Romeo Racing
14 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Ferrari
15 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Haas
16 Pierre Gasly (Fra) Scuderia AlphaTauri
17 Antonio Giovinazzi (Ita) Alfa Romeo Racing
18 George Russell (Gbr) Williams
19 Nicholas Latifi (Can) Williams
20 Kevin Magnussen (Den) Haas
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Preamble
When Formula One gave Mugello its first grand prix, no one expected Ferrari would arrive at their home track in such disarray. They’ve not registered a point in the last two races; Charles Leclerc is seventh in the championship while Sebastian Vettel is 13th; the team are sixth in the constructors’ standings behind Racing Point and Renault; and when Vettel announced this week he had signed with Aston Martin from next season, he revealed things had got so bad at Ferrari he had considered retiring.
But sport is nothing without hope and on Saturday in qualifying Leclerc injected the home fans with a huge dose of it. The Monégasque will start the Tuscan Grand Prix fifth on the grid after surpassing all expectations and he will have support in the stands, with some fans allowed back for the first time this season. It’s also Ferrari’s 1000th race, of course, so what price an emotional return to the podium for F1’s glamour team?
Lights out at 2.10pm (BST)
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