Lewis Hamilton moved to within one of Michael Schumacher’s record for Formula 1 wins as claimed victory at the Tuscan Grand Prix.
Amid two Safety Cars and two red flags, the Briton got ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas at the second restart and would do enough to become F1’s first winner at Mugello.
Race Review
A poor start from Hamilton sees Bottas take the lead, as Charles Leclerc jumps both Red Bulls to claim third.
Chaos in the pack sees Verstappen, who dropped down the field after a loss of power on the run to Turn 1, punted into the gravel by Raikkonen after contact with Gasly and Grosjean on the run to Turn 3.
Sainz also spins in the middle of Turn 3 after contact with Lance Stroll with Vettel unable to avoid the McLaren and damaged his front wing.
The Safety Car is called to clear the Red Bull and AlphaTauri.
At the restart, Bottas waited until the last moment to drop the hammer and there was more carnage as Giovinazzi and Sainz slam into a slow-moving Kevin Magnussen on the main straight, wiping out Nicholas Latifi at the same time.
The result was a red flag and another standing start just like Monza a week ago.
During the race suspension, Esteban Ocon became the seventh retirement in just nine laps as Renault withdrew his car due to brakes overheating.
The second restart sees Hamilton retake the lead from Bottas into Turn 1 as Albon drops three places down to seventh.
Mercedes streak away at the front as Leclerc holds onto third, but the Monegasque soon drops back as Stroll, Ricciardo and the recovering Albon all move ahead on consecutive laps.
The Renault driver then performs the perfect undercut on the Canadian to move up to third in the pit-stop phase.
At the front, Bottas is allowed to pit first as he struggles more with degradation. Despite a call to be fitted on the opposite tyre to Hamilton, Mercedes fit both with the hard compound for the run to the finish.
And that second stint would be dominated by the battle for third as Stroll and Albon close back in on Ricciardo, seeking his first podium since Monaco 2018.
Lance though would suffer a puncture in the middle of the Arrabbiata corners causing a second red flag to repair the barrier.
The leaders had all pitted under the initial Safety Car but would switch to the soft tyres for the final 14-lap sprint to the finish.
At the third standing start, Bottas lost out to Ricciardo into Turn 1 as Albon just about retained fourth ahead of Perez.
The Finn wasted little time in repassing the Renault on the next lap however, before Albon would drop the former Red Bull driver out of the podium places to fourth.
Out front though, Hamilton had it all under control as he held his teammate at bay to take the chequered flag and secure his sixth win of the season 90th win in F1.
Albon finally claimed his maiden podium in third as Ricciardo’s wait for a first rostrum with Renault continues with fourth.
Perez claimed fifth ahead of Lando Norris and Daniil Kvyat in the AlphaTauri.
Raikkonen crossed the line eighth, but a five-second penalty dropped the Finn to ninth behind Leclerc in the first Ferrari.
Sebastian Vettel rounded out the top 10 for the Scuderia’s 1000th race.
George Russell just missed out on his first F1 point in 11th as Romain Grosjean was the final finisher in 12th.
Full results can be seen below:
