Despite disguising itself under another name, a second consecutive Grand Prix in Italy saw yet another action packed, drama filled race, with a red flag or two to spice things up. To help try and keep up with it all is our 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix Result review.
The Mugello track on F1 debut provided as much drama, if not more, as the previous weekend’s race at Monza. Which is a good thing of course.
There was plenty of crashes, some decent overtaking down the field, and some mildly interesting results.
Well, behind the winner Lewis Hamilton that is.
Read on for our 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix Result review which follow the laps you need to know, our race rating and driver rating regulars. With some barely interesting stats and graphs at the end.
2020 Tuscan Grand Prix Result – THE LAPS THAT MATTERED
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Well here are the top laps where stuff happened. Normally it is five or ten, so you know it was a good race if there’s more than ten.
We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football.
Lap 0 – Not for the first time this season, Red Bull mechanics are furiiously working on the car of Max Verstappen right until the final moment.
Lap 1 – Lewis Hamilton loses his first place on the first lap this season, dropping to second. The usual excitement of the first lap passes without incident until the fourth corner when all hell breaks loose. A McLaren tangles with a Racing Point towards the front, further back a slow starting Max Verstappen is taken out as well as last weekend’s winner Pierre Gasly. Vettel’s woeful run in 2020 continues as he finds a sideways McLaren.
Looks like it is Gasly’s fault at first, running into Kimi Raikkonen, who mostly likely will say he doesn’t care when interviewed later.
Charles Leclerc gives Ferrari some ray of light with a great start into third. Similar joy for Williams whose driver George Russell is lying 11th, and perhaps a rare point is within reach.
Safety Car comes out to sort all this shit out.
ORDER – BOT, HAM, LEC, ALB, STR, RIC, PER, NOR, KVY, OCO
Lap 7 – Finally the bloody Safety Car is coming in. How long until it comes out again. We’ll give it ten minutes.
BIG CRASH – Did we say ten minutes? It wasn’t even ten seconds……
Looks like the entire second half of the race has been wiped out on the pit straight. Now you can’t blame anyone until you see proof, but there is a Haas involved.
Safety Car is deployed again. RED FLAG is a much better idea, and out it comes. It means there has been a combined total of 3/4 of a lap of racing thus far.
Replays show that it was Giovinazzi who set it all off, but the radio says it was caused by Bottas playing silly buggers up at the front with the Safety Car restart. In car footage from Carlos Sainz is quite frightening.
ORDER – BOT, HAM, LEC, ALB, STR, RIC, PER, NOR, KVY, OCO
Lap 10 – Finally getting underway with new standing start, tough going for Aussie fans with a restart after midnight.
New start – Lewis Hamilton gains his first place off the grid this season burning off Bottas around the outside of the first corner. Well, there goes the race win then. Third place Leclerc 4 seconds behind after one lap, Bottas is weak.
Lap 15 – Ricciardo overtakes Sergio Perez for fifth. Stroll (4th) is trying his luck with Leclerc (3rd), and gets him a few laps later.
Lap 19 – Ricciardo is up to 4th, overtaking the Ferrari of Leclerc. That tattoo for his boss may be coming yet. Albon gets by Leclerc a lap later. Perez too a lap after that.
Lap 28 – Daniel Ricciardo is the first front runner to make a pitstop. He drops from 4th to 8th.Stroll pits on lap 31 and falls behind the Australian in the race for third.
Lap 32 – Bottas pits. And very few care.
Lap 40 – Pitstops done, and trying hard to not turn over to the various football on offer.
ORDER – HAM, BOT, RIC, STR, ALB, PER, NOR, KVY, RUS, VET
Lap 44 – Lance Stroll goes off in a cloud of dust, and looks a biggun. Replays show him losing the back in a fast corner. Car and barrier junked.
Shame, as it looked like the Ferraris were just about to run into each other, for 10th place.
The upside is that the timing of the safety car means Bottas got the rub of the green and new tyres straight away. hamilton does so a lap later.
RED FLAG AGAIN. Hopefully this race finishes before we are meant to gt up in Australia.
ORDER – HAM, BOT, RIC, ALB, PER, NOR, KVY, LEC, RUS, VET
George Russell on track for points.
Lap 46 – Race restarts for a third time. Hamilton blasts away from the line with no trouble. Ricciardo gets in front of Bottas and steals second, for a lap. Bottas gets by next lap. So Mrcedes look like they won’t be touched, so it is down to Riccairdo, Albon and Perez for the final podium.
Lap 51 – Albon takes Ricciardo for third place around the outside of turn 1. And he quickly starts trying to catch Bottas’ Mercedes.
Lap 54 – Bottas is 1.3 seconds a lap quicker than Hamilton. Could we see a battle for the lead between the two Mercedes. Further back, a point of interest in George Russell trying to get within 5 seconds of a penalised Kimi Raikkonen.
2020 Tuscan Grand Prix – RACE RATING
We rate the 2020 Italian F1 Grand Prix so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 6/10
A second consecutive DNF sees the title challenge of Max Verstappen realistically over given Hamilton’s near faultless driving and Mercedes reliability.
More of the same from Ferrari and Bottas.
Midfield superiority battle at least looks like going down to last race.
ON TRACK ACTION – 8/10
Loads of crashes, with two red flags due to the size of them.
Some overtaking in the midfield throughout the race.
ENDING 7 / 10
The last restart after the Red Flag gave a 12 lap sprint race. But it fizzed out pretty quickly.
OVERALL RATING 21 / 30
The longest GP of the season brought enough action to keep any F1 interested.
RACE RATINGS SO FAR
Austrian Grand Prix – 28/30
Styrian Grand Prix – 23/30
Hungarian Grand Prix – 15/30
70th Anniversary Grand Prix – 15/30
2020 Tuscan Grand Prix Result – Great & Grape
Here we go through the field and highlight the three drivers we think deserve a little extra love, and one driver whose had the grapest weekend of all.
These points get added to our Driver of the Season. 3-2-1 for the Great and minus one point for the Grapest races.
It used to be called the good, bad and ugly, but everyone is using that now. And who doesn’t like grapes.
THE GREAT – 1. LEWIS HAMILTON
Another win, making up for the previous race in Monza where he was royally ripped off.
Lost a position for the first time this season, but crucially regained one on a safety car restart.
Almost unbeatable right now.
THE GREAT – 2. ALEX ALBON
Finally got that podium that has eluded him for a while and with kudos from Lewis Hamilton. Stepped up in Max Verstappen’s absence from the race.
THE GREAT – 3. DANIEL RICCIARDO
Couldn’t quite get that tattoo winning podium, but a super drive none-the-less.
THE GRAPE – MAX VERSTAPPEN
A poor start was his fault, an exit caused by other drivers certainly wasn’t. Getting to the stage where he won’t be able to challenge for the title, and we can’t rely on Bottas to make it interesting.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
Ferrari – Fancy being just faster than a Williams.
2020 Tuscan Grand Prix Result – Bits & Pieces
Here’s some side topics that we thought about while watching the race.
- If this was Ferrari’s 1000th race, surely the F1 bosses could have let a Ferrari do the Safety Car gig. And even better, an ex F1 Ferrari. Which one would we choose, why the 1989 Ferrari, so much Mansell, and Mansell is good.
- If F1 can organise a race at Mugello this quickly, and at just an existing track rather than a new $600M design by Tilke, why can’t we have more, different style tracks when F1 resumes for real next season.
2020 Tuscan Grand Prix Result – 2020 Driver of the Year – The Martini Trophy
A feature on this website is determining the driver of the year.
This recognises not just the driver with the most amount of points at the end of the year, but factoring performance against their team mate, possibly outperforming the car, and a nod to our Great and Grape above. A full explanation is below the results.
The Martini Trophy is named after one of our favourite F1 drivers of all time, the underrated Pierluigi Martini.
2020 Tuscan Grand Prix Results – Martini Trophy
Top qualifiers are awarded 3-2-1
Top finishes are awarded 5-4-3-2-1
Out-Race team mate only applies if they both cars finish or unless the other driver was a complete dick.
Best of Rest is the top driver not from Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari in race and qualifying
FirstLap is 0.2 / -0.2 for every position gained / lost on the first lap.
Good and Grape points are award 3-2-1 and -1 for drivers.
2020 Driver of the Year Points so far
2020 Tuscan Grand Prix Result – Stats and Stuff
Here is a selection of our favourite stats from the season so far.
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