Lewis Hamilton-Valtteri Bottas one-two at Imola puts Mercedes clear of Ferrari with the most constructors' crowns in succession; "Seven-times champs, that's something I'm going to be able to tell my grandchildren one day," says Hamilton.
Mercedes have taken another record away from Ferrari by winning a seventh F1 constructors' championship in a row at Sunday's Emilia-Romagna GP.
Clinching the 2020 teams' crown with four races to spare with a one-two finish at Imola, Mercedes claim the outright record for consecutive crowns after matching Ferrari's run from 1999-2004 last year.
Mercedes' seventh title has come in just 11 seasons since returning to F1 as a team owner in 2010 and, most incredibly, represents every constructors' title available in the hybrid-turbo engine era.
Hamilton had to defend from the start and chose to go right, but Verstappen took P2 behind Bottas into Tamburello, as Hamilton squeezed Gasly. The Frenchman briefly lost ground to the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, before toughing it around the outside of Turn 2 and taking P5.
It was P5 because Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo had opportunistically nipped through when Gasly had been outmuscled by Hamilton, Ricciardo thus taking fourth, ahead of Gasly, Leclerc, and Albon, who’d dropped a place at the start.
Behind them, Lance Stroll tagged the Renault of Esteban Ocon at Turn 2 costing himself a front wing that was replaced at the end of the first lap, while down at Tosa, Sebastian Vettel nerfed Haas’ Kevin Magnussen into a spin – the stewards investigating but deciding not to take any action.
It was a dream scenario early doors for Bottas then, who’d not only beaten Hamilton to Turn 2 but now had Verstappen as a buffer between him and his teammate around the narrow, hard-to-follow-at Imola.
By Lap 10, Bottas’ advantage over Verstappen was only 1.5s, the Dutchman with the same advantage to Hamilton behind – but the Finn looked comfortable out front.
There was a collective groan on Lap 8 as Gasly, who’d driven brilliantly all weekend, was ordered to retire his AlphaTauri AT01, with the team having been spotted working on the car before the race start, while a coolant leak was ultimately cited as the reason.
It was a cruel fate for the Frenchman, who resignedly climbed out of the boxed AT01 and removed his Ayrton Senna tribute helmet.
If the Mercedes had starred, though, so too had Ricciardo, whose brilliant start had put him in a position to claim an incredible second podium of the season with the Renault team that he’ll leave in four races’ time.
Kvyat had done exceptionally well to work his way up to P4 at the flag, choosing the perfect time to remind the Red Bull bosses that he could still do a job in F1, while Leclerc took his second-straight top-five finish for Ferrari – as teammate Vettel could only take P13 after his slow stop.
Perez’s late pit stop ultimately left him an angry sixth – the Mexican feeling that his first podium of the season had been well within reach – while he finished ahead of the McLaren duo of Sainz and Norris, who’d once again appeared to lack the ultimate pace of their upper midfield rivals on race day.
The top 10 was closed out by the Alfa Romeos, who enjoyed the team’s best race of the year to claim ninth and 10th, Raikkonen’s epic first stint meaning he headed home boy Antonio Giovinazzi, who’d started the race last.
On a day when Red Bull needed to score at least 33 points to stand a chance of preventing Mercedes from taking the constructors’ title, though, the Milton Keynes team left Imola with nothing, as Albon eventually came home P15.
In a way, it summed up how 2020 has gone so far, with Red Bull coming close – but never quite able to properly arrest – the momentum of the mighty, and now seven-time constructors’ champions, Mercedes.
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