After enduring a poor start, six-time defending Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton eventually took the lead and then comfortably cruised home with the victory at the 2020 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. His Mercedes teammate, Valterri Bottas, was in second place while Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo claimed his second podium of the year with his third place finish.
Bottas was the pole-sitter at the race start with Hamilton alongside him in the first row but a poor start by Hamilton allowed Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to come up from the second row and split the Mercedes and that is the way it remained for 19 laps when both Bottas and Verstappen came in for their respective pit stops while Hamilton chose to remain on the track. Fortune smiled upon Hamilton while despair smirked at Renault’s Esteban Ocon on Lap 29 as Ocon suffered a clutch failure that brought out the virtual safety car long enough for Hamilton to pit and retain his lead over Bottas, whose car suffered floor damage on the second lap and was unable to stay with Hamilton.
That was the difference in the race as Bottas then followed Hamilton around until Lap 43 when Verstappen passed an ailing Bottas only to crash out on Lap 51 with a rear tire puncture which then allowed Ricciardo to snag his podium finish.
2020 Emilia Romagna Top 10
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:28:32.430
2 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES +5.783
3 3 Daniel Ricciardo RENAULT +14.320
4 26 Daniil Kvyat ALPHATAURI +15.141
5 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI +19.111
6 11 Sergio Perez RACING POINT +19.652
7 55 Carlos Sainz MCLAREN +20.230
8 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN +21.131
9 7 Kimi Räikkönen ALFA ROMEO RACING +22.224
10 99 Antonio Giovinazzi ALFA ROMEO RACING +26.398
