And that’s it from me - thanks for reading!
Updated
Here’s our report from Imola:
Lewis Hamilton on his latest victory and Mercedes’ title: “It was an exhausting race with the speed we were having to go – and I had a poor start. It’s overwhelming right now because I look at my crew here, everyone back at the factory … they’re the unsung heroes who have grafted away, who continue to push, to elevate and innovate.
“People watch it and think we’re used to this but it always feels like a first with this team. I’m forever grateful to be a part of it. We’ve got a great leader. To come back year on year, it’s not easy, to deliver weekend in, weekend out. Seven times champs – that’s something I’ll be able to tell my grandchildren!”
Daniel Ricciardo speaks from the podium: “It was a bizarre one. I got into fourth from the start and thought that was the best we could do, with the three in front. Perez had really good pace, he passed us thorough the pit sequence, and then it all happened with the safety car at the end. I’m not sure what happened to Max, but that put us in the fight. It’s difficult for overtaking here but the circuit itself was awesome.”
Valtteri Bottas: “The start was good, that was the main thing to get right. On lap two there was debris – I saw it but couldn’t avoid it. I tried not to run it over with the tyres but it caused damage, which made it tricky to drive. I was really pushing hard to avoid Max getting through.”
Final standings
1 Hamilton
2 Bottas
3 Ricciardo
4 Kvyat
5 Leclerc
6 Perez
7 Norris
8 Sainz
9 Raikkonen
10 Giovinazzi
11 Latifi
12 Vettel
13 Stroll
14 Grosjean
15 Albon
Did not finish: - Russell, Verstappen, Magnussen, Ocon, Gasly
Valtteri Bottas was second in another one-two finish for Merc, and Daniel Ricciardo third for Renault. He’s delighted: “Holy mac and cheese balls. Another podium!”
Updated
Hamilton wins the GP and Mercedes are constructors' champions!
And with the fastest lap – he finishes in style – and that makes Mercedes the 2020 constructors’ world champions! Toto Wolff and his team embrace.
Updated
Lap 61/63: Hamilton is 1.8sec ahead of Bottas in the lead, Ricciardo is on course for third with Kvyat in DRS range. Leclerc and Perez are locking horns for fifth.
Lap 60/63: Hamilton roars through with another fastest lap. Albon was left spinning when Kvyat went past him – and the Russian saw off Leclerc too.
Lap 59/63: Kvyas closes in on Ricciardo for a podium finish – a hair’s breadth between the two. What a spectacular restart by the Russian.
Lap 58/63: We’re back – Perez goes to overtake Albon but Kvyas gets ahead of them both! Brilliant!
Russell puts it in the barriers behind the safety car 💥@GeorgeRussell63: "I don't know what to say" 📻
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) November 1, 2020
📺 Live on Sky Sports F1
📱 Live on the App and Sky Go
💻 Live Blog: https://t.co/CkqLNAZAQx#SkyF1 | #F1 | #ImolaGP pic.twitter.com/5RArYihpOP
Lap 56/63. We’re still under the safety car.
Russell out of the GP
The Williams driver tries to warm his tyres up behind the safety car, but his wheels spin and he goes into the barriers. Dreadful error! “I don’t know what to say” he says. That could have been his first F1 championship point!
Updated
Lap 52/63: Botas and Perez are among those to pit after Verstappen’s exit. Top 10: Hamilton, Bottas, Ricciardo, Leclerc, Albon, Norris, Perez, Kvyat, Sainz, Raikkonen
Verstappen out!
From nothing, Verstappen is in the gravel! After such a great race, after doing so well to reel in Bottas, his right rear tyre fails and he’s ended up pointing the wrong way at the chicane. And we have a safety car. “Something broke on the car,” Verstappen groans. That’s the one-two finish handed to Mercedes.
Magnussen out
…but not for long. He retires. Raikkonen finally pits with 13 laps to go.
Lap 46/63: “I’m getting a massive headache from all these upshifts,” says Magnussen. “It is like a kick in the head.” He is asked by his team if he wants to retire but powers on.
Lap 44/63: Hamilton leads by 13.5secs. Raikkonen is still yet to pit. Sergio Perez is in net fourth having started in 11th.
Updated
Lap 42/63: Verstappen is hounding Bottas, the gap half a second as they come up the hill. Bottas locks up again and Verstappen sweeps along the outside and takes second place from the Finn. Bottas bottles it! Top 10: Hamilton, Bottas, Verstappen,Raikkonen (0 stops), Perez, Ricciardo, Leclerc, Albon, Kvyat, Sainz
Lap 38/63: Bottas is struggling now – he locks up again and is told the damage is “pretty significant”. Verstappen is less than a second behind him. As for Vettel, he was doing pretty well until a terrible 13-second pitstop. That allows Russell overtakes him into 12, which will soon become 11th when Räikkönen pits.
Lap 36/63: The battle for second has become the one to watch. Verstappen is right on Bottas’ tail and on the attack.
Lap 32/63: Bottas is pursuing the leader manfully, 4.5secs behind, but is battling damage to his floor. Hamilton looks all set to win a Grand Prix that has been robbed of excitement by the virtual safety car. Top 10: Hamilton, Bottas, Verstappen, Vettel (0 stops), Raikkonen (0 stops), Latifi (0 stops), Perez, Ricciardo, Leclerc, Albon.
Lap 31/63: Hamilton leads by 4secs, Bottas second and Verstappen third. This is Hamilton’s to lose now: all the chips have fallen in his favour. The virtual safety car was timed almost exactly with his pit stop.
Updated
Ocon is out!
Lap 28/63: The Frenchman has a problem and is forced to stop, smoke coming off his Renault. The virtual safety car is deployed, and Hamilton comes in the pits. Leclerc as he takes P9 from Magnussen in a four-way tussle.
Updated
Lap 27/63: Kevin Magnussen is in eighth despite spinning in lap 1 – well done that man. Mercedes ask Hamilton to go another 10 laps! He doesn’t complain.
Lap 25/63: “We have damage on the floor, left hand side” – that’s the message to Bottas. He and Verstappen are in a bit of a head-to-head here with Hamilton taking control. “We’re just being held up here by Bottas,” comes the voice over the Red Bull radio. “If you have a little more pace we could do with it.” Mercedes tell Hamilton. “I don’t,” he barks.
Lap 23/63: Another fastest lap for Hamilton who has clicked into gear out in front. Bottas needs to pick up the pace. Top 10: Hamilton (0 stops), Bottas, Verstappen, Perez (0 stops), Vettel (0 stops), Raikkonen (0 stops), Latifi (0 stops), Magnussen (0 stops), Ricciardo, Leclerc.
Updated
Lap 22/63: Verstappen pits as Red Bull attempt the undercut! Bottas follows as Mercedes respond but Lewis Hamilton is told he is going to extend his first stint… “I’m going to pick up the pace, don’t stop me,” says Hamilton, and promptly scores the fastest lap of the race so far.
Updated
Lap 18/63: Albon and Kvyat collide, the latter clipping the former and front wing scraping rear wheel, but both look to have gotten away with it.
Updated
Lap 16/63: “Everything you got!” comes the message to Bottas, who must be pitting soon. But not quite yet … he and Verstappen keep at it.
Lap 13/63: “Right front doesn’t feel great,” says Hamilton. Leclerc has ditched his soft tyres for hards. Giovinazzi and Russell have both been in for new tyres in recent laps, Riccardo, Leclerc, Albon and Kvyat follow.
Updated
Lap 11/63: As it stands: Bottas, Verstappen, Hamilton, Ricciardo, Leclerc, Albon, Kvyat, Sainz, Norris, Perez. The top three are separated by about 3.5secs. Ferrari are trying to undercut Ricciardo, who Albon is told is struggling.
Updated
Lap 8/63: Hamilton drops back out of DRS range behind Verstappen, Bottas leading by 1.6sec. “We are quicker in all corners, just not on the straights,” Verstappen is told over the Red Bull team radio. Gasly’s early exit was apparently due to a drop of water pressure in his vehicle.
Updated
Gasly retires from the race!
The Frenchman heads into the pits after that mystery power-unit issue is deemed by his team to be terminal. He was fifth. That is gutting for the driver who qualified in real style.
Lap 5/63: Sainz zips past McLaren teammate Norris into P9. Stewards are looking at an incident between Magnussen and Vettel. Top 10: Bottas, Verstappen, Hamilton, Ricciardo, Gasly, Leclerc, Albon, Kvyat, Sainz, Norris.
Updated
Lap 4/63: “It’s so hard to follow here,” murmurs Hamilton. He’s 1.3sec behind Verstappen, who’s in turn 1.4 behind Bottas. Those front three are some way ahead of the pack.
Updated
Lap 3/63: Verstappen has made up some precious miliseconds on Bottas, who is still out in front. Lance Stroll has gone off missing a wing after contact with Ocon’s Renault. Pierre Gasly is behind fourth-placed Ricciardo. Giovinazzi has steamed into 14th after starting in P20.
Updated
Lap 1/63: Bottas gets away nicely and leads. Magnussen spins and drops back. Verstappen ends the first lap in second after a terrific start, Hamilton in third. Less than two seconds between the trio.
Updated
And we're off!
With the formation lap done, Valtteri Bottas with a slightly worrying early lock-up on the final loop, the cars return to the grid, get set, and put pedal to the metal.
Gasly’s panic was over a power unit issue they they are confident is now resolved. And we’re good to go.
Something seems the matter with Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri. His team have removed panels from the car and are peering at … well, who knows.
Meanwhile, Red Bull – the only other team in mathematical contention for the constructors’ championship – would need to outscore their rivals by 34 points today to deny them the trophy. Or to put it another way, Mercedes would only need one of their drivers to finish fourth to guarantee the win.
And the second piece of existential pre-race reading sees Lewis Hamilton talk about the prospect of racing for the first time on the circuit where Ayrton Senna lost his life:
Andrew Goudie writes in to point out “that halloween grid is much better than this effort from McClaren”:
Faintly existential pre-race reading. First up, longtime buddies Damon Hill and Johnny Herbert open up about putting their lives on the line in the name of sport:
What’s eating Sebastian Vettel? An all-time great and winner of four successive titles seven short years ago. Yet today he starts in 14th, behind teammate Leclerc for the 11th time this season. A bizarre fall from grace and one that, at 33, he’ll need to recover from soon or not at all.
F1’s social media team have been busy. This is certainly not as bad as it could have been, but I feel there may be room for improvement. Any suggestions?
👻 STARTLING GRID 👻
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 31, 2020
Ready for frights out 😱🚦#ImolaGP 🇮🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/Dt65YpkReR
Emilia-Romagna: food heaven
Here’s how they qualified:
1 Valtteri Bottas
2 Lewis Hamilton
3 Max Verstappen
4 Pierre Gasly
5 Daniel Ricciardo
6 Alexander Albon
7 Charles Leclerc
8 Daniil Kvyat
9 Lando Norris
10 Carlos Sainz
11 Sergio Perez
12 Esteban Ocon
13 George Russell
14 Sebastian Vettel
15 Lance Stroll
16 Romain Grosjean
17 Kevin Magnussen
18 Kimi Raikkonen
19 Nicholas Latifi
20 Antonio Giovinazzi
Preamble
Mercedes Mercedes Mercedes! A seventh successive constructors’ championship is in sight for Toto Wolff’s super-team, and what better setting to clinch it than the autumnal splendour of Emilia-Romagna?
It’s one of the more glorious parts of the world and though Lewis Hamilton and pals won’t have been indulging in the ragu, mortadella and lambrusco the region is rightly famed for, they may well treat themselves to a glass of the good stuff this evening should things go their way.
They certainly did in qualifying, when Hamilton gave a rare glimpse of his fallibility with a sloppy final lap, seeing him pipped to pole by his teammate Valtteri Bottas. We’re yet to see a race this season without a Mercedes driver in pole.
In the drivers’ championship, Hamilton leads Bottas by 77 points with five races remaining, and looks a shoo-in for the title. He can’t claim it at Imola – the first race here since 2006 – but another victory would leave him in the position to do so at the next round, in Istanbul.
So that’s that, then: Mercedes Mercedes Mercedes, all set for glory, without a care in the world – right? Or who knows, maybe there’ll be a twist in the road somewhere. Chi dorme non piglia pesci!
Race starts at 12.10pm GMT
Updated
