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Lewis Hamilton and Valterri Bottas led the charge for Mercedes AMG Petronas at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Imola, Italy as the team clinched its record seventh consecutive Constructors’ title.
Watched by arid autumnal skies at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, home of Scuderia Ferrari, Mercedes unseated the Italian team’s previously held record for most consecutive constructor wins, with Hamilton the first to cross the checkered line and Bottas a leisurely 5.783 seconds behind. Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo came in third.
Hamilton said, after the race: “It’s very overwhelming right now. I look at this team and think of everyone back at Brackley and Brixworth, they are the unsung heroes.
“They are the ones grafting away, never giving up, continuing to push, elevate and innovate. A big congratulations to the team on a hugely deserved Constructors’ title.
“Seven-time champions – that’s something I’m going to be able to tell my grandchildren one day. No team has ever achieved this and I feel honoured to be a part of breaking this record.”
The race started off with Bottas at pole position and Hamilton in P2, followed by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and Ricciardo.
With a close but successful start, Bottas led the charge for the first 10 laps, as Verstappen and Hamilton followed, staving off contenders left and right.
Lap 8 saw the retirement of Gasly due to a coolant leak that seemed to have started even before the race.
“This one is quite difficult to take,” the Frenchman said after the race.
“I felt really good in the car and we were running in P5. The guys spotted a drop of water pressure on the laps to the grid before the race, they tried everything to fix it but unfortunately, we had to retire the car after a few laps.
“It’s very sad because there was a big opportunity for us today. The whole weekend went so well, it was the best practice and the best qualifying we’ve had and the car felt very strong from the beginning.”
Meanwhile, tyres were proving to be a compounding problem for all the teams, because the teams had only had 90 minutes of practise at the track to try out all three tyre compounds – and tyre degradation seemed to be higher than anticipated.
However, Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen kept going in P4 without a pit stop until the late stages of the race, perhaps due to his aversion to the pits, after his botched tyre change in Bahrain two years ago injured Ferrari mechanic Francesco Cigarini.
But the Finnish driver’s ice-cool effort and ultimate finish at P9 was recognised as he was crowned the driver of the day.
At the front of the Imola race, Verstappen kept up an aggressive onslaught in the notoriously difficult-to-drive RB16, performing one of the best and only overtakes at Imola when he snatched P2 from Bottas.
Embattled Bottas also had to deal with significant damage to the floor of his car, which accounts for more than half of the car’s downforce aerodynamics.
Bottas explained later: “The start was really good but then on the second lap, out of Turn 7, there was some debris on the track.
“I didn’t have time to avoid it, so I aimed for the middle of the car, trying not to run over the debris with the tyres. But it caused some damage and got stuck on the car somehow, which made the car really tricky to drive and also cost a chunk of performance.”
However, Verstappen’s joy was short-lived until Lap 51 of 63, when a tyre issue forced him off the track, with the race god of luck finally blessing Bottas.
While Mercedes were the obvious belles of the ball, Ricciardo the self-proclaimed ‘Honey Badger’ also had reason to celebrate as he claimed his second podium of the season.
The Aussie won a tattoo bet in Germany last month against team principal Cyril Abiteboul when he clinched his first podium of the season. Sadly, a second podium does not mean a second tattoo for Abiteboul.
In the drivers’ championship, Hamilton with his bonus fastest lap point, now looks like a practical shoo-in for his seventh title, matching that of racing legend Michael Schumacher.
However, the final races of the season may prove instrumental to next year’s roster, as drivers like Red Bull’s Alex Albon are being watched for signs of weakness by their paymasters.
The next F1 race takes place in Turkey on November 15, followed by two weekends at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, starting on November 27.
