BEVERLY HILLS, November 01, (THEWILL) – Mercedes officially clinched the 2020 Constructors’ Championship after a well-timed Virtual Safety Car helped Formula One record-breaking British racer Lewis Hamilton to victory at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Finnish Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas qualified on pole and was in a good position to claim a third race victory of the season. However, damage to the bottom of the Finn’s car and a change of strategy from Hamilton saw the Brit win his third straight race.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, well-placed to finish second, and even push Hamilton towards the end of the race, was unfortunate to have spun into the gravel with 13 laps remaining after suffering a problem at the rear of his car.
Another Mercedes one-two means the Silver Arrows claim their seventh successive Constructors’ Championship and their 11th race victory of 2020. The Belgian-Dutch Verstappen and French racing driver for Scuderia AlphaTauri Pierre Gasly are the the only drivers to have loosened Bottas and Hamilton’s grip on the season.
Russian driver Daniil Vyacheslavovich Kvyat deserves an honourable mention for the way he pushed Australian racer for Renault Daniel Ricciardo all the way for a podium finish, with Verstappen also driving well until his spin.
Yet, Hamilton’s race victory was purely an exhibit of his determination to stretch his first stint of the race for as long as he could. The Brit was definitely fortunate with the timing of the Virtual Safety Car, but there’s a chance he would have come out from the pits ahead of Bottas even without that Virtual Safety Car.
In all, it was an excellent drive for Hamilton as he edges closer to another drivers’ championship.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
