Four talking points from a crazy Tuscan Grand Prix

What does Bottas have to do?

It’s hard not to feel sorry for Valtteri Bottas at the moment, especially after this race. The Finn for once appeared to have the edge on Lewis Hamilton around the fast, demanding, ‘old-school’ 3.25-mile track. But not when it mattered. Hamilton took his 95^th pole position on Saturday – 30 more than Ayrton Senna achieved – having worked hard to piece together a quick lap to hit the top in Q3.

But at the start on Sunday afternoon, Bottas grabbed back the initiative at the start, and with overtaking expected to be challenging at a circuit where drivers only use their brakes six times per lap, it could have been decisive – were it not for the chaos that was about to break out.

Three safety cars and two red flags – this was a race that threw everything at the drivers. And some of them fumbled with serious consequences.

Bottas lost his advantage after the first red flag and at the subsequent standing restart, as Hamilton this time got the drop. Tension created by tyre wear and another restart from another red flag kept Lewis on his toes – but he wasn’t about to give his team-mate a second chance. The tally now reads six wins for the season, 90 for his career – just one behind Michael Schumacher’s record – and a 55-point lead at the top of the standings with eight races to go. Even when he’s not fully on top, he still finds a way to win. That sounds like a definition of greatness, doesn’t it? Bottas must be wondering what he’s got to do.

Twelve drivers receive warnings

Mugello’s sweeping corners and old-fashioned gravel traps always threatened to punish drivers, and so it proved as only a dozen made it to the finish. Lance Stroll was shaken by a high-speed impact after touching a kerb in his Racing Point, and Max Verstappen was left fuming with a second consecutive DNF after being punted off by Kimi Raikkonen on the first lap, in an incident that also brought Monza winner Pierre Gasly back down to earth with a bump. But it was the motorway-style pile-up on the start/finish straight at the first safety car restart that really caused an intake of breath.

Was Bottas at fault for the concertina effect, as the pack bunched up? The stewards said no, while Valtteri and Hamilton both pointed out the tendency this year for the safety car to turn its lights off late to warn it is coming in has created new uncertainty, in the name of entertainment. Instead, the finger of blame was placed on the drivers in the midfield and at the back. Twelve of them received warnings: Kevin Magnussen, Nicholas Latifi, Antonio Giovinazzi and Carlos Sainz Jr. – all of whom were eliminated in the carnage – plus Daniel Kvyat, Alexander Albon, Lance Stroll, Daniel Ricciardo, Sergio Perez, Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon and George Russell. We probably haven’t heard the last of this one.

The battle for best of the rest

There were plenty of contenders to join the Mercedes duo on the podium. Without his power problem and first-lap drama, Verstappen would likely have taken the spot, as he usually does when he has a problem-free race. But with Max out of the picture, opportunity knocked for three drivers.

First, Charles Leclerc gave Ferrari fans something to cheer at the Scuderia’s 1000^th world championship GP by running third early on – but given the state of the team right now, such form was never going to hold. Leclerc would stop three times with tyre wear concerns as he slipped back to the edges of the top 10.

Ricciardo looked set this time to send team boss Cyril Abiteboul to the tattoo parlour to honour their podium bet when he rose to third, then second at the second of the standing restarts. Bottas soon grabbed the place back, but was this still to be Renault’s day? No – although fourth place equals Ricciardo’s best result in yellow and black. Instead it was Alexander Albon, in some need of a decent result to stop people talking about Gasly taking back his Red Bull drive, who finally delivered the podium he deserved – the first Thai driver to stand on F1’s top three steps. Whether it saves his neck or not remains to be seen.

Heartache for Russell

Mercedes might be doing most of the winning, but nothing in the midfield can be labelled predictable this season, as Mugello proved once more. The Racing Point vs McLaren duel swung back towards the pink cars this time as Perez beat Norris to fifth, while Kvyat stepped up after Gasly’s early retirement to score his best finish of the season for Alpha Tauri, in seventh. And there was some sliver of consolation for Ferrari as both Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel made the points, Charles in eighth after Raikkonen was penalised for illegally crossing a white line at the pit entry and Vettel in 10^th. Woo-hoo.

In a race featuring such a heavy rate of attrition, what a shame then that George Russell couldn’t find quite enough pace in his Williams to grab his first point or two. The 22-year-old ran as high as ninth, but didn’t have the performance to sustain such heady heights, as the team’s new owners watched on. P11 was still his best result, but with Vettel’s rear wing just ahead of him Mugello had administered one last kick. Whether they made it to the finish or not, F1’s drivers left Italy ever so slightly battered from a proper motor race at an old-school circuit with a refreshingly strong flavour. Perhaps they should be allowed to race on such tracks more often.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.