Eifel GP As it happened: Hamilton equals Schumachers win record. Ricciardo takes a podium as Bottas retires

Hamilton wins, Bottas retires on lap 19 from 3rd.
Max takes a comfortable 2nd. Albon out.
Hulkenburg finishes 8th after starting last.
Ricciardo’s first podium since leaving Renault.
Vettel again out of the points.

15:16
Final Classification:

15:11
No such luck, guess we’ll just have to be happy with the thought of Cyril Abiteboul’s face in a seedy tattoo parlor somewhere in the backroads of Europe.

15:06
Just waiting to see if Ricciardo takes a shoey on the podium now tbh.

15:01
A touching moment as Mick Schumacher, the son of Micheal, presents Lewis with one of his father’s race helmets as a show of recognition of the British driver’s achievement.

A very special gift to celebrate a landmark victory 🎁#EifelGP 🇩🇪 #F1 pic.twitter.com/N7GNU97C2v

— Formula 1 (@F1) October 11, 2020

14:58
He’s smiling now, but when Dani-Ric gets him into that tattoo parlour…

14:53
Lewis Hamilton wins!
Lewis Hamilton joins Schumacher at the top of the record books with the 91st win of his career as he now looks to equal the great Germans 7 titles this year too.
Max takes the fastest lap as a consolation, but Hamilton now has a commanding lead at the top of the pile of 70 points over the young Dutchman.

14:49
FINAL LAP:
Well, all that action that we were looking forward to after the safety car just didn’t come to anything.

It’s as you were for the top five as we hit the final lap.

14:47
Vettel might not get that point, his old teammate Raikonnen is putting the pressure on just 0.7s behind.

14:45
Can Vettel sneak a point? He’s 1.5 behind Giovinizzi in 11th

14:43
5 laps to go:
Is Hamilton about to equal the milestone of 91 wins set by Schumacher?
Max doesn’t seem to have an answer as he’s falling further behind in both the race and the title hunt.

14:40
7 laps to go:
Ricciardo is keeping Perez behind but the DRS is now enabled. The mexican will be throwing his granny at the aussie to get this podium in the remaining few minutes.

14:36
Leclerc falls behind Gasly and into striking distance of Hulkenburg.
Hulk is really going for it today, what a show from the German at a home GP he wouldnt have thought he’d be driving at just over 24hours ago.

14:35
Hamilton backing the pack right up now as we are off again.
Great racing from Max, Dani and perez as they are all side by side at points around the first couple corners.
Hamilton is gone, but the fight for 3rd is gonna be so good for the remaining 10 laps.

14:31
Norris channeling his inner Alonso…

14:29
Lapped cars let past. and It’s all but the front five.
That front five is:
Hamilton
Verstappen
Ricciardo
Perez
Sainz

14:28
Leclerc now running 2nd on the track, but he’s a lap down.
Perez pits next lap round, so the battle for third will now be extra spicy with both cars now on fresh rubber and right beside each other.

14:24
SAFETY CAR!
Norris’ engine just cuts out.
And they all pile into the pits, except Perez who jumps Dani-Ric. We will have a major fight for the podium now. No threat of the podium finisher being lapped now.

Hamilton’s lead of 11sec to Max now completely wiped out.

14:19
Hulkenburg, not a regular in this season, no practice time before qualifying, started plum last, just overtook Vettel.

Aston Martin must surely be questioning their decision for next year. Ferrari must be glad to see the back of him in a couple months too.

14:14
This reminds me a tad of the Silverstone race that Hamilton won on three wheels. Red Bull not fast enough to threaten, but fast enough to be in the pit window of Mercedes.

The difference is, there’s a sizable gap behind Max this time that the waiting game to see if tyres will last shouldnt be an issue.

Perez and Ricciardo on the other hand, that could get very interesting. Given that Ricciardo needs to make it over 40 laps on his rubber to get on the podium.

14:09
The rate of attrition seems to have been halted for now. Perez has put himself in contention for a podium by clearing Leclerc so as not to let Ricciardo build a pitstop gap ahead.

14:03
If anyone can remember when the last time someone on the podium was lapped let me know, Ricciardo is currently almost a minute down on leader Lewis.

14:00
Halfway point, we have lost: Russell, Bottas, Ocon, and Albon.
Hamilton and Verstappen on course to deal Bottas a huge blow to his title hopes.
Hulkenburg is running around in the points, Vettel yet again, isnt.

13:54
More issues, Norris has a sensor issue, or is it something more sinister?
Panicked conversation over the radio right now.

13:51
Ocon retires with braking issues. It’s down to Dani-Ric to grab a podium for the Renault team now.
And Albon retires as well, what’s going on with the ‘big’ teams today?

13:48
Kimi gets a 10sec penalty for wiping out George Russell.
Max is trading fastest laps with Lewis just now, some rain would be fantastic right now.
37 laps to go.

13:44
Bottas is going super slow, infact he’s retiring the car.
Mechanics are putting on the rubber gloves so is it a hybrid issue?

13:41
BOTTAS NO POWER!
Albon just wipes out the front end of Kvyatt as he clumsily elbows his way across the Russian as he was overtaking.

13:38
Bottas rejoins behind Ricciardo after a pit stop.
Mind I said about a lack of bumper cars?
Enter Kimi Raikonnen, stage right, slamming into Russell’s right rear and nearly flipping the young Englishman.
Russell is out with suspension and floor damage now.

13:34
Where did that come from?
Hamilton leads, caught us all napping there.
Bottas locks up massively into turn one and then as he rejoins he nearly took Hamilton out.

13:31
Would it be a race weekend without a Vettel spin these days?
At least he’s consistent.

13:29
Here’s that pitwall radar image. this could get tasty.

13:27
Albon bows out of that battle early and pits for mediums on just lap 9 and ends up last.

Oh my, Ricciardo, round the outside of Lerclerc at turn 2. What a move

13:25
Albon starting to join the party with the two boys in red and yellow ahead of him. Ricciardo will hope to clear him soon so as to bridge a gap to Albon.

Threat of rain to come says the pitwall. Bring it.

13:21
A sizeable gap is starting to form behind Max as Leclerc’s Ferrari is beginning to form a bit of a train behind him.

Ricciardo is piling on the pressure on the Monagasgue but to no avail just now.

13:18
Bottas well in control in the opening couple of laps, over 1.5 ahead of Lewis.
Max just seems to be holding station in 3rd.

No bumper cars today as they all seem to have behaved themselves, although Kimi was lucky not to plow into a few cars going into the first corner.

13:16
Lights out!
Great start for Hamilton as he gets to the first corner ahead but they both go wide at turn one and Bottas nips back ahead.

Leclerc has held onto 4th behind Max but Albon has slipped back behind Dani Ric into 6th.

Hulk up from last to 17th so far.

13:13
Do you think the German fans are happy to see Hulk back?

13:04
Not long to go.
In the build up Hamilton has tried to change something to do with the steering as he is finding too much play in the wheel.
But the FIA have refused the request under park ferme rules as it wasn’t a safety issue.

Getting in his excuses early? Nah.

12:59
Good afternoon everyone, and welcome back to the Nurburgring for the first time in 7 years.

The podium last time here was Vettel, Raikonnen, and Grosjean. That ain’t happening again.

Bottas starts from pole ahead of Hamilton and Verstappen. The Finn will be hoping to keep the pressure up on his teammate going intop the buisiness end of the truncated season.

🚀 @ValtteriBottas had a blast on Saturday!

Here’s the Finn’s pole lap at the @nuerburgring 💪#EifelGP 🇩🇪 @pirellisport pic.twitter.com/9OUx9rj8xt

— Formula 1 (@F1) October 10, 2020