BREAKING: Hamilton wins crazy race in Mugello!

The red flag came out once again as Lance Stroll hit the wall hard at Turn 9, but Valtteri Bottas was unable to retake the lead and finished in P2.

They were joined on the podium by Alex Albon, taking his first top three finish after Max Verstappen was forced to retire on the opening lap.

Before the race there was drama regarding Verstappen’s car. Several Red Bull mechanics surrounded the rear of his car and there was doubt over his participation in the race. There were clear problems for Verstappen’s car, but the Dutchman started the race.

At the start Bottas got away best, passing Hamilton almost immediately. Verstappen had a horrendous start, dropping into the middle of the pack, seemingly having no power.

Charles Leclerc made a great start for Ferrari in their 1000th race, jumping ahead of Alex Albon into third.

As they reached Turn 2, there was carnage in the midfield. Last week’s hero Pierre Gasly tangled with Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean, with the Alfa Romeo running into the back of Verstappen. The Dutchman spun into the gravel and was out of the race, along with Gasly.

Verstappen seemed to be struggling for power, so he may not have gone far into the race anyway, but the collision made sure of that.

Further up, Carlos Sainz spun his McLaren after a touch with Sergio Perez and gave Sebastian Vettel nowhere to go, clashing with Sainz and breaking his front wing.

The Safety Car was called out whilst the cars were cleaned up, returning to the pits on Lap 6.

At the restart, Bottas backed the pack up massively before bolting. The compactness of the pack was always going to cause chaos and it did. Some of the midfield pack sped up before leader Bottas, resulting in a big shunt.

Kevin Magnussen was going slower than those behind him and whilst Nicholas Latifi avoided him, Antonio Giovinazzi hit the rear of the Haas. The Italian then bounced into Latifi, with Sainz also hitting Magnussen from behind.

All four walked away but retired from the race and the red flag was called out for the second time in two weeks. During the red flag Renault found an issue with Esteban Ocon’s car, forcing him to retire from 10th.

As with last weekend at Monza, we got underway again from a standing start. Bottas originally got a good getaway but in the slipstream Hamilton was able to make a move for the lead at Turn 1.

Albon got a tough start from fourth, dropping down to seventh, behind the two Racing Points and Daniel Ricciardo. A few laps later Ricciardo split the Racing Points, using DRS to pass Sergio Perez into Turn 1.

On Lap 18 of 59, Lance Stroll moved his Racing Point up to third with a move on the outside of Charles Leclerc. Just a few seconds later, Stroll’s teammate Perez was the victim of a move around the outside of Turn 1, as Albon recovered to P6.

In the coming laps Leclerc fell down the order, losing out to Ricciardo, Albon and Perez before pitting.

The first Mercedes pitted at the end of Lap 31 as Bottas came in for new tyres. Hamilton came in a lap later and there was no worry of the undercut, as the Brit came out way ahead.

With three-quarters of the race gone, Stroll had a left-front puncture and spun out at high speed at Turn 9. The Racing Point hit the wall, damaging it and bringing out another red flag as Stroll walked away from the scene of the accident.

At the third start of the afternoon Bottas got a poor start, allowing Ricciardo to move through into second. However, Bottas soon re-took the position and it got even worse for Ricciardo as he dropped off the podium, passed by Alex Albon.

Bottas was unable to close in on Hamilton, who scored his first podium in F1. Ricciardo took fourth, ahead of Perez and Norris. Kvyat scored his best finish of the season in seventh. Leclerc took P8 for Ferrari, as Raikkonen was penalised with a five-second penalty for a pit entry infringement. Vettel took P10, holding off George Russell. Grosjean was the final finisher in 12th.