Mercedes-AMG Petronas’ Lewis Hamilton drove his heart out at the wet-weather race at the Istanbul Park Circuit and claimed the win, while teammate Valtteri Bottas – the only man who could have stopped Hamilton winning the title – spun four times en route to a P14 finish. Meanwhile, BWT Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow’s Sebastian Vettel completed the podium.
Hamilton had started the race in sixth and rose to third midway through the first lap, before dropping back to sixth by the end of Lap 1 after an error at Corner 9. But a decision to change his intermediate tyres just once saw Hamilton drive a masterful race to claim victory by over 25 seconds from Perez.
Behind Hamilton, a dramatic last lap saw Sergio Perez overtaken by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc for P2, only for Leclerc to overcook it at Turn 12, with Perez retaking second as Vettel made it through on his teammate to claim his first podium of the season.
Leclerc was left to cross the line at P4, ahead of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz, while a spin-filled afternoon for Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s duo of Max Verstappen and Alex Albon, who finished P6 and P7, ahead of the Sainz’ McLaren teammate, Lando Norris.
Norris, for his part, claimed the place after a late pass on Racing Point’s Lance Stroll, who had secured a brilliant maiden pole position on Saturday and led much of the early part of the Grand Prix, only for his race to unravel after a difficult third stint on intermediate tyres, leaving him ninth at the flag, with Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo rounding off the points-scoring positions.
At the end, though, all eyes were on Hamilton, who has well and truly cemented himself into Formula 1’s record books. And considering the fact that he took his second Turkish Grand Prix victory by almost half a minute shows just why he now stands as a seven-time world champion.
The next stop now is Bahrain for the November 29 race, which kicks off the Middle Eastern triple-header that will close the 2020 Formula 1 season.