Some reaction from Hamilton.
That’s it from me. Here’s Giles Richards’s full race report:
Championship leaders sharing a special moment 🤝#EifelGP 🇩🇪 #F1 pic.twitter.com/IDTXK1oKUp
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 11, 2020
Hamilton takes to the podium, carrying Michael Schumacher’s helmet with him. The champagne sprays and Martin Brundle makes the timely point on commentary that it is a real shame, a tragedy, that Schumacher can’t be there in person to commemorate the moment.
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The standings
Drivers’ championship
- Hamilton 230pts
- Bottas 161
- Verstappen 147
- Ricciardo 78
- Perez 68
- Norris 65
- Albon 64
- Leclerc 63
- Stroll 57
- Gasly 53
Constructors’ championship
- Mercedes 391pts
- Red Bull 211
- Racing Point 120
- McLaren 116
- Renault 114
- Ferrari 80
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Here’s Lewis Hamilton talking to David Coulthard: “It was not an easy race at all. The Red Bulls are so fast. Max drove extremely well. We’ve got a serious fight on our hands. I’m knackered, I’m telling you.
Mick Schumacher presents Hamilton with one of Michael’s helmets. “I’m honoured,” says Hamilton. “Wow. I don’t know what to say. When you grow up watching someone and idolise them … I don’t think anyone – especially me – thought I would be anywhere close to Michael in terms of records. I couldn’t have done it without this team and huge respect to Michael.”
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Hamilton hugs his team but his celebrations are reserved compared to Daniel Ricciardo, whose Renault team are beside themselves with joy at his podium finish.
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“What a result, thanks so much,” a calm Hamilton tells his team over the radio. He’ll surely be out on his own on 92 before too much longer. Then next stop 100. Here’s our snap race report:
Finishing positions
- Hamilton
- Verstappen
- Ricciardo
- Perez
- Sainz
- Gasly
- Leclerc
- Hulkenberg
- Grosjean
- Giovinazzi
Lewis Hamilton wins the Eifel Grand Prix!
Another peerless drive from Hamilton, who overhauled his teammate then cruised clear before finishing off with some scintillating laps. He equals Michael Schumacher’s record of 91 F1 race wins.
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Lap 60/60 All over bar the shouting.
Lap 59/60 Quite apart from equalling Schumacher, Hamilton is set to extend his championship lead to 69 points. It’ll surely be a seventh world title for him come the season’s end.
Lap 58/60 Another fastest lap from Hamilton, who has been sensationally quick since the safety car threatened to derail his race.
Lap 57/60 Ricciardo looks like he’s got enough of a cushion to hold on to the final podium spot. Perez can’t get close enough. Sainz is fifth and should hold off Gasly in sixth. Leclerc in seventh is under pressure from Hulkenberg, who is comfortably clear of Grosjean in ninth and Giovinazzi in 10th.
Lap 56/60 Five laps stand between Hamilton and a share of Schumacher’s record.
Lap 55/60 It looks like we might get some heavy rain shortly after the chequered flag. The storm clouds are gathering above the Nürburgring.
Lap 54/60 Hulkenberg, having dragged himself off his settee yesterday, is in eighth place. Another extraordinary effort.
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Lap 53/60 By my reckoning, Hamilton has just set three successive lap records. Incredible stuff.
Lap 52/60 Hamilton, perhaps with the adrenalin coursing through his veins cancelling out the cooler tyres, sets a new fastest lap.
Lap 51/60 Gasly squeezes past Leclerc and into sixth – Sainz is ahead of him in fifth. Hamilton already has a comfortable gap on Verstappen, who in turn has got air between himself and Ricciardo in third.
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Lap 49/60 The safety car stays out despite the reservations of Verstappen and Hamilton who are increasingly irritated.
Lap 48/60 Verstappen also gets on the radio to fret about cold tyres behind the safety car. The number of lapped cars in amongst the leaders is causing a bit of a problem but they’re finally allowed through.
Lap 47/60 So forget all those time gaps. Hamilton, Verstappen, Ricciardo, Perez are the leading quartet. A frustrated Hamilton asks his team to get the safety car to get a move on. “It’s unsafe for him to go this slow,” says the British driver.
Lap 46/60 Hamilton pits, Verstappen pits, Ricciardo pits.
Lap 45/60 Smoke pours from Norris’s stricken car. And the safety car is out. That could put the cat among the pigeons.
Lap 44/60 Norris’s race is finally over, he pulls over and parks up as far out of the way as possible. A disappointing afternoon for him – before those power problems he was on-course for a very good finish.
Lap 43/60 The main battle now seems to be for third. Ricciardo is the incumbent but his tyres are much older than Perez’s in fourth and his 11 second lead is coming down all the time.
Lap 42/60 Hamilton’s lead is up over 10 seconds now.
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Lap 41/60 Gasly squeezes past Vettel too. The Ferrari driver is not enjoying himself at all – he’s reporting tyre problems and is soon past by Hulkenberg, who seems to be heading towards some points this afternoon, rather remarkably.
Lap 40/60 Leclerc flies past his teammate Vettel to move into seventh – next up to the road is Norris, who is coping admirably with his McLaren’s power problems.
Lap 39/60 Leclerc, having a fun-packed race, passed Raikkonen and moves into eighth. And Gasly soon nips past the Finnish driver too.
Lap 38/60 Here’s Valtteri Bottas, chatting to the broadcasters: “Unlucky, what can I say? It was a great start and we had a good battle.”
Lap 37/60 Leclerc pits from fifth and returns in 10th. Hamilton’s lead is up to a comfortable eight seconds.
Lap 36/60 Perez finally clambers past Leclerc and this time makes it stick, sending the Racing Point garage into fist-pumping paroxysms.
Lap 35/60 Perez pops past Leclerc at the chicane but the Ferrari hits the DRS and is able to claim his place back going in to turn one.
Lap 34/60 Perez has Leclerc in his sights and wants to nab his fourth place. There’s a podium place up for grabs if he can squeeze past the Ferrari and get after Ricciardo.
Lap 33/60 Up at the front it’s becoming quite a serene afternoon for Hamilton. He has 5.5sec over Verstappen, who in turn is 55sec – 55sec! – ahead of Leclerc in fourth.
Lap 32/60 Perez thunders past Norris at the chicane to move into fifth. An interesting battle that one, notwithstanding Norris’s power problems – they’re two of the six drivers between fourth and ninth in the championship who are separated by just nine points.
Lap 31/60 Norris reports further loss of power and pits but just gets a change of tyres. He returns to the track in fifth.
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Lap 30/60 Lewis Hamilton is halfway to equalling Michael Schumacher’s record of 91 Formula One race wins. Here’s the top 10 as it stands:
1 Hamilton, 2 Verstappen, 3 Norris, 4 Ricciardo, 5 Leclerc, 6 Gasly, 7 Perez, 8 Hulkenberg, 9 Sainz, 10 Giovinazzi.
Lap 29/60 Perez pits from fourth place, giving Norris in third a bit of breathing room.
Lap 28/60 Norris is told to stay out by his team but he’s clearly not happy. Leclerc fends off Gasly and holds on to seventh … for now.
Lap 27/60 A quick update on Hulkenberg – he’s ninth and doing a very serviceable job.
Lap 26/60 Hamilton has pulled four seconds ahead of Verstappen, with that pair 34 seconds ahead of Norris in third. He, though, has some sort of power problem and could be in trouble.
Lap 25/60 Ah, in fact Albon won’t serve that time penalty as he’s had to retire from the race.
Lap 24/60 Albon gets a time penalty for his coming-together with Kvyat earlier on.
Lap 23/60 Ocon pits from seventh place with a braking problem. And his race is over.
Lap 22/60 Albon again locks up as he attempts to overtake Gasly for eighth. They were inches from a collision – Alpha Tauri must be sick of the sight of him today.
Lap 21/60 “Salutations rom (foggy this morning) Oxapampa, Peru,” writes Manuel Villavicencio. “Il Giro on the small screen, preps from Roland Garros final on the other one. Coffee growing at 1700 Mts high, Yanachaga Chemillen cordillera, the Sun’s just lurking above, eating away the fog quickly, appreciate the race call for all of us.” Ah, that’s put a smile on my face on a grey London afternoon. Meanwhile, Raikkonen has been handed a 10-second penalty for his crash with Russell. And on his record-breaking 323rd F1 start too.
Lap 20/60 Bottas limps sadly to the pits and pulls out of the race. Not a great afternoon for him. So it’s Hamilton v Verstappen then.
Lap 19/60 This hasn’t been a good 10 minutes for Bottas – he reports engine problems and drops back through the field. “I’ve got no power,” he tells his team. Kvyat calls in to get a new front wing.
Lap 18/60 They’re racing again. And Hamilton has stayed ahead of Verstappen though the gap has closed. Meanwhile in midfield, Albon clumsily overtakes Kvyat and knocks off his front wing!
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Lap 17/60 The virtual safety car has been deployed so Russell’s car can be removed for the track. Hamilton and Verstappen take the opportunity to pit while the race has been slowed.
Lap 16/60 Bottas has rejoined after his pitstop behind Ricciardo but is quickly past the Renault. At the front, Hamilton leads Verstappen by just over five seconds.
Lap 15/60 Raikonnen could face a penalty for that, not that it will really matter for him as he’s last anyway. Russell’s race is indeed over.
Lap 14/60 Russell also spins into turn one. Spits and spots of rain are landing at the track now apparently but not enough I don’t think to be causing these incidents. In fact, replays show Russell colliding with Raikkonen. His race could be over.
Lap 13/60 Superb from Hamilton! Bottas locks up into turn one – bit of a theme developing there – and Hamilton is close enough to take advantage. He sweeps past and into the lead!
Lap 12/60 As a result of that spin/skid, Vettel has to pit and puts some hard tyres on.
Lap 11/60 Leclerc pits so Norris gets a view of clear asphalt ahead of him. Meanwhile, Vettel spins off at turn one and just about manages to right himself and continue.
Lap 10/60 Norris is the next to have a look at Leclerc but Perez almost uses the opportunity to edge past the McLaren into sixth.
Lap 9/60 Lewis Hamilton sets a new fastest lap but still trails his teammate by a second and a half. Meanwhile, Ricciardo edges past Leclerc on the outside of turn two and holds him off through turn three. Nice work.
Lap 8/60 Albon, who started fifth on the grid, makes an early pitstop to change tyres and drops to the back.
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Lap 7/60 McLaren have been on race radio to warn their drivers of a “light shower” ahead.
Lap 6/60 Leclerc locks up but Ricciardo can’t take advantage. The traffic jam behind is growing. Meanwhile, the lead three are 11 seconds ahead.
Lap 5/60 Ricciardo has a couple of DRS digs at Leclerc but can’t get past. Grosjean, who fell to the back of the grid at the start, says some gravel has hit his hands and he fears his finger may be broken.
Lap 4/60 The gap between the lead trio and Leclerc in fourth is already close to seven seconds. Ricciardo is right behind the Ferrari and Jonesing to get past.
Lap 3/60 Ricciardo edged ahead of Albon in fifth in those opening exchanges.
Lap 2/60 Hulkenberg managed to pick his way past three cars from the back of the grid, a fine start for the emergency callup. At the front Bottas has a 1.5sec lead over Hamilton, who in turn has Verstappen for company but there’s already a gap developing to between that trio and the rest.
Lap 1/60 Hamilton gets his nose ahead going into the first corner but is forced wide by Bottas, who gets back in front at turn two. So Bottas leads, Hamilton second, Verstappen has held on to third. Leclerc is fourth in the Ferrari.
Red, red, red, red, GREEN! And away we go.
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And they’re off … on the formation lap.
The grid
- Bottas (Mercedes)
- Hamilton (Mercedes)
- Verstappen (Red Bull)
- Leclerc (Ferrari)
- Albon (Red Bull)
- Ricciardo (Renault)
- Ocon (Renault)
- Norris (McLaren)
- Perez (Racing Point)
- Sainz (McLaren)
- Vettel (Ferrari)
- Gasly (AlphaTauri)
- Kvyat (AlphaTauri)
- Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo)
- Magnussen (Haas)
- Grosjean (Haas)
- Russell (Williams)
- Latifi (Williams)
- Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo)
- Hulkenberg (Racing Point)
The drivers line up at the end of the grid for the “End Racism” message. And we get an slightly ear-bothering solo-violinist version of the German national anthem.
Lewis Hamilton has called in a problem with his steering wheel over the radio – a comfort problem rather than a safety problem. Sounds like it was an issue yesterday and the team were not given permission to fix ir overnight.
The cars are just beginning to emerge from the pit lane. As the grid begins to take shape, here’s Giles again, on Hamilton, Schumacher and the relentless pursuit of victory.
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Preamble
Hello all and welcome to lap-by-lap coverage of the F1 Eifel Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. The main source of interest is, of course, Lewis Hamilton’s attempt to match Michael Schumacher’s F1 record of 91 race wins. He couldn’t get it done last time out in Russia and that was from pole – this time he starts on the front row of the grid but behind his in-form teammate Valtteri Bottas.
Here’s Giles Richards’ report from qualifying:
It’ll also be interesting to see how Nico Hulkenberg goes. The German has replaced the ill Lance Stroll for Racing Point and was handily working with broadcasters nearby in Cologne. He’s at the very back of the grid after his emergency call-up and has had just four laps round the track in preparation for the race. It’s been a abridged preparation for all of the drivers, with the first two practice sessions called off thanks to the weather.
Speaking of which, there are a few clouds gathering above the Nürburgring which could lead to some showers later on.
The lights go green at 1.10pm BST or thereabouts.
