Perfect weekend wrapped up the Constructor’s Championship for Mercedes at the 2020 F1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

Chaos ensued near the end of the race, but Mercedes came out on top as Lewis Hamilton won the race ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo in third.

Starting Grid

Mercedes lock out the front row again, but this time Valtteri Bottas started from pole as Lewis Hamilton had to settle for second best. After engine problems, Max Verstappen was able to put his car into P3 alongside his former teammate Pierre Gasly in the AlphaTauri.

Daniel Ricciardo and Alex Albon lined up on the third row in P5 and P6 respectively, Charles Leclerc and Daniil Kvyat occupied the fourth row and the two McLaren’s of Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz rounded off the top ten.

Former teammates Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon lined up in P11 and P12, George Russell out-qualified Sebastian Vettel again as the two started from P13 and P14. Lance Stroll in P15, the two Haas’ of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen in P16 and P17, Kimi Raikkonen in P18, Nicholas Latifi in P19 and Antonio Giovinazzi in P20.

And It’s Lights Out And Away We Go

Bottas got away well, Verstappen jumped Hamilton at the start as Ricciardo moved ahead of Gasly. Vettel and Magnussen touched as the latter came out worse as it dropped him to the back of the pack.

The pole-sitter stretched his lead to nearly two seconds as he looked to get away from the racey Red Bull of Verstappen. After contact with Ocon, Stroll had to pit for a front-wing change as his performance was hindered.

Giovinazzi continued his 100% record of overtaking at least one car on lap one as the Italian put his car into 14th after he started at the back of the grid.

Gasly retired from the race as his car leaked coolant and saw the Frenchman left quite disappointed as he was doing a stellar job at the front of the pack.

After lap ten, Bottas lead in front with Verstappen in second and Hamilton in third. Ricciardo followed in fourth, Leclerc in fifth, Albon in sixth, Kvyat in seventh, Sainz in eighth, Norris in ninth and Perez in tenth.

Most of the drivers decided to pit early on. To carry on until the end, they fitted the hard tyre. Not long after that, Verstappen came into the pits for the hard tyre on lap 18 and Bottas joined him in doing the same a lap later.

Hamilton extended his stint on the medium tyres as the Mercedes driver started to dispatch the backmarkers.

Magnussen held up Ricciardo, Leclerc, Albon and Kvyat. Ricciardo and Leclerc were able to get past the Haas driver, but Albon and Kvyat had to wait until the Dane pitted.

Ocon was the second driver to retire from the race as his Renault had a clutch driver which forced the Frenchman to sit out for the rest of the race.

A Virtual Safety Car allowed Hamilton to pit risk-free and put the Brit into the lead of the race.

At the halfway point of the race, Hamilton lead away from Bottas with Verstappen in third. Vettel, Raikkonen, Latifi and Perez hadn’t pitted yet and were fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh respectively. Ricciardo in eighth, Leclerc in ninth and Albon in tenth.

An awful pitstop by Ferrari saw Vettel’s chances of scoring points turn to dust. Two of the four wheels wouldn’t stick onto the Scarlet Red Ferrari and dropped the German to 14th.

Bottas dipped his damaged car into the gravel out of the last corner and saw himself under threat from Verstappen as the Red Bull breezed past the Mercedes down the start/finish straight.

Magnussen became the third retirement of the race as he complained of severe headaches whilst upshifting.

The Safety Car was released not long after Magnussen’s retirement as Verstappen’s rear right tyre blew and caused chaos around the pitlane.

With ten laps to go, Hamilton still lead the race ahead of Bottas and Ricciardo in third. Leclerc followed in fourth with Albon in fifth, Norris in sixth, Perez in seventh, Kvyat in eighth, Sainz in ninth and Russel destined for his first World Championship point in tenth.

Not long after disaster struck for the Williams driver as he tried to get temperature into his tyres, he would spin off and retired from the race.

At the restart, Kvyat moved in fourth ahead of Perez and Albon. Perez then dispatched Albon and Sainz looked to follow suit, but Albon made the task easy for the McLaren driver as he went spinning off.

Mercedes picked up the Constructors’ Championship with a stellar one-two finish from their trusty pairing and picked up maximum points from the race as Hamilton picked up an extra point for the fastest lap of the race.