HAMILTON WINS HECTIC TUSCAN GRAND PRIX

Lewis Hamilton has taken yet another victory in 2020 as he hunts down his seventh Drivers World Championship title. His Silver Arrows teammate Valtteri Bottas takes second place in front of Alex Albon (Red Bull) who finishes third for this first podium in Formula One after being tantalisingly close in previous races this year and last year.

In Ferrari's 1000th race it was drama from the fourth corner where last weekends race winner Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri) was sandwiched inbetween the Haas of Kevin Magnussen and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen as they had no where to go but the gravel trap which left all but Magnussen beached and out of the race - on the exit of this turn saw the Racing Point of Lance Stroll tapping the rear of Carlos Sainz (McLaren) leaving his MCL35 facing the wrong way and in hand leaving Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari no where to get past but nudge the car of the man replacing him next year and damaging the German drivers front wing which meant Vettel pitted on the first lap.

This chaos caused a Safety Car which kept everyone nice and close. Then after around five laps under the Safety Car - Bottas (the then race leader) slowed the pack up and then got away well as did the top five behind them however was very much a different story - as the lights went green the drivers all got rather excited and got tangled up causing a large shunt with the Williams of Nicholas Latifi, the Haas of Magnussen who then went into the back of the Alfa Romeo of Antonio Giovinazzi - this left the Haas car momentarily airborne. Also caught up in this was the McLaren of Carlos Sainz. So after six laps of the maiden Tuscan Grand Prix the cars had raced just four corners.

This incident caused a red flag bringing the remaining 14 cars into the pits for around 10 minutes - during this time that drivers use as a break and to talk to their engineers the Renault of Esteban Ocon was retired due to a brake duct failure.

With 50 laps still left in this race we got underway with a standing start which mixed up the order a bit leaving Hamilton out in front. The race had calmed down since the red flag but then on lap 44 the Racing Point of Lance Stroll lost pressure in his rear right tyre causing him to have a heavy impact into the tyre wall on the exit of turn two. This then lead to a second red flag (this was the first race to have two red flags since Brazil 2016). This stop lasted another 10 minutes.

The restart was really a battle for third as the Mercedes pulled out a commanding lead on the rest of the field. The fight was between Albon (Red Bull), Ricciardo (Renault) and Sergio Perez in the sole remaining Racing Point.

In the end the pace of the Red Bull was too much for the Renault works team. Giving Alex Albon his first podium and the first podium for a Red Bull driver that isn't Max Verstappen.

At the back of the pack was the Williams of George Russell who was unbelievably close to his first World Championship point as he chased the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel who he finished a second behind. During the second red flag Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) was late into the pits and was consequently handed a five second time penalty which meant that in the end Russell was left one second away from his first point in F1.

This race also marked the 222nd points finishing race for Lewis Hamilton - a new Formula One record.

The next race is the Russian Grand Prix.