Bottas finished ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and a furious LCH, whose day was ruined mostly before the race even began. It means that Hamilton will at least need to wait another week before he draw level with Michael Schumacher on 91 career race wins.
Bottas was thrilled with the result and had a message ready to go for the win. “Yes., get in there,” he said. “Yes, ha ha. F*** yeah. I think it’s a nice moment to thank my critics to whom it may concern, f*** you,” he said.
It’s almost his trademark response after a win, having first said it after winning the 2019 Australian Grand Prix and those who write him off. It narrows Hamilton’s lead at the top of the F1 driver’s standings slightly but after finishing third, Hamilton was furious throughout the session.
incident that steamed Hamilton was before the race even began when the championship leader performed a practice start at the end of the pit lane. While the incident was investigated before the formation lap, Hamilton was handed two five-second penalties for the move and he was far from happy when told about it.
“What happened? What happened?” he said. “****. Where is that in the rule book?
Sky Sports’ David Croft said he hadn’t seen it happen in a long time.
“In 277 Grands Prix, I’ve not seen two practice start violations before. But you always learn something new in Formula 1,” Croft said. “For Lewis Hamilton, it’s a double whammy.”
Hamilton called it “ridiculous” and wouldn’t let his team forget they pitted him earlier than he wanted. Post-race, he didn’t want to talk about the incident and barely wanted to talk on the grid post race.
“Just not the greatest day,” he said of the penalty. “It is what it is. It’s done now. I take the points that I got and move on.” Asked about coming back to finish third, Hamilton said: “I didn’t really do much, I just held my position.”
LCH didn’t mince his words as to what motivated the penalties after he was asked whether it seemed excessive.
“Of course it is,” he said. “They’re doing everything… of course it is. It’s to be expected. They’re trying to stop me, aren’t they?”