Lewis secured his 91st victory in Formula One - his seventh of the 2020 season and second at the Nurburgring. He now equals Michael Schumacher's record for the most race wins in F1. Lewis was presented with one of Michael's helmets, by Michael's son Mick, in Parc ferme in celebration of the achievement.
Valtteri led the early stages of the race but was forced to pull into the garage and retire the car on lap 19 owing to a Power Unit problem.
Today's result marked the 228th race in the points for Mercedes-Benz power, equalling Ford for the longest run of consecutive points finishes for an engine manufacturer.
Lewis (230 points) leads the Drivers' Championship by 69 points from Valtteri (161 points). The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team (391 points) leads Red Bull Racing (211 points) by 180 points in the Constructors' Championship.
Stephen Lord, Race Team Coordinator, accepted the Constructors' trophy on behalf of the team.
Toto Wolff: Congratulations to Lewis on the victory today and for equalling Michael's record for most F1 wins. It's an incredible moment. I remember watching F1 when Ferrari were winning every single Championship. Now our team have been able to catch them up and seeing Lewis equalise Michael's winning record, it's much more emotional than I thought it would be. An amazing thing to witness and a fantastic drive by Lewis today. It was a challenging race with very tricky, cool conditions. Valtteri and Lewis had a brilliant battle on the first lap, they raced each other hard but knew where the boundaries were. Valtteri went full rally style, keeping his foot on the throttle and maintained position. The pace of Valtteri's opening few laps were incredible and it was such a shame he suffered the lock-up and then had the Power Unit issue. Otherwise, he would have been in the fight for victory, for sure. We still need to analyse what caused his retirement, because we don't yet know the real cause. Everyone at Brixworth on the Power Unit side are pushing the boundaries all of the time and that's why these things can sometimes happen. Of course, disappointing for Valtteri but we know how resilient he is, so I'm sure he'll bounce back.
Andrew Shovlin: Another really impressive win from Lewis and it's incredible that he's equalled Michael's colossal tally of race wins. Michael has many good friends within the team, and it was very moving to see Mick and the family mark the occasion by giving Lewis one of Michael's helmets. Valtteri on the other hand had a tough day. It was going well for him, but all his bad luck seemed to come within a few laps. He'd struggled a bit with the front end when we had some spots of rain, which triggered a lock up that meant he had to box for a new set. He then lost race time to Lewis and Max, because they benefited from a faster stop under the VSC, and then on the restart he was losing power and we couldn't recover the situation. So, we retired the car. We're still looking into the problem, but the early indications are that it's an electronic issue rather than a hardware issue. Lewis's day was more straightforward. He did a good job of preserving the tyres in the first stint and was starting to make good time on Max later in the stint, but ultimately both got pulled in by the VSC. He had everything under control in the second stint. We had the gap to just shadow what Red Bull were doing but the Safety Car came out, which made the decision to convert to a two-stop very easy. Overall, it's been pleasing to see car work well in the cold conditions but as we've seen in other years, Red Bull are developing well and it's looking like it will be pretty tight in the remaining races. However, retiring a car from a race is not our normal standard and it's especially tough for Valtteri, who had good prospects after such a strong pole position yesterday. We'll work hard to get on top of that issue and look forward to the challenge of another new track in Portugal.
Scuderia Ferrari leaves Germany's Nurburgring circuit with a seven and eleventh place in the maiden Eifel Grand Prix, courtesy of Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel respectively. The SF1000 was not as competitive in the race as it had been in qualifying, especially with Charles who was soon struggling on the Soft tyres, so that he came in to get rid of them on lap 10.
The early tyre change meant Leclerc was now on a two stop race, during which he pulled off several impressive passing moves on his way back up to sixth place. But with 15 laps remaining, the Safety Car came out after Lando Norris had to park his McLaren at the side of the track. That penalised the Monegasque who had no more fresh tyres and therefore decided to stay out on track, but at the restart, he had to give best to Pierre Gasly in the AlphaTauri to finish the race in seventh spot.
With a free choice of tyres, Vettel opted for Mediums at the start, after which he lost one place to a hard charging Antonio Giovinazzi in the Alfa Romeo. As Vettel then tried to pass the Italian, he lost control at turn 1 and had to pit having flat-spotted his tyres too badly to continue. He took on Hards on his SF1000, but they would not go the distance and so he came in for a final set of new Softs, which allowed him to fight, most notably with Kevin Magnussen, but he was unable to get into the points, having to settle for eleventh behind the aforementioned Giovinazzi.
Lewis Hamilton won the race, thus equalling Michael Schumacher's record of 91 GP victories. 72 of the German's wins were obtained with the Scuderia, the other 19 with Benetton. To mark the occasion, Michael's son Mick presented the Englishman with one of his father's crash helmets. The Ferrari Driver Academy student was due to make his Formula 1 weekend debut here at the Nurburgring at the wheel of an Alfa Romeo Racing car in the first free practice session, which was cancelled because of rain.
Mattia Binotto, Team Principal: It was a tough race today, mainly down to getting the tyre temperatures into the right operating window. That was particularly the case with Charles who, after a good start, began to suffer with graining on the Softs, right from the first few laps, which meant he was unable to push as hard as he would have liked. We therefore had to pit him earlier than planned, immediately switching him to another strategy. Then, in the closing stages, when it would have been possible to pit under the Safety Car, we took the joint decision to leave him out on the Mediums, given what we had seen in the early stages of the race.
"As for Sebastian, the spin early on compromised his race and from then on, there was little to be done, even in the final laps when he was running the Softs.
"Of course, we are not satisfied with this result, but we continue to work on improving our overall performance level. We saw signs of progress in qualifying, but the important thing is that the updates we are introducing seem to be going in the right direction, especially looking ahead to 2021. In the light of this, we should also have a few updates for the next race in Portimao."
Christian Horner, Team Principal: "It is fantastic to see Max on the second step of the podium again with yet another stellar drive and we do seem to be a small step closer in the fight with Mercedes this weekend. Max was able to keep within striking distance of Lewis for the entire race and it all got a little more interesting when the field closed up behind the Safety Car on lap 44. Because the Safety Car was out for so long the tyre temperatures plummeted which Lewis, with the DAS system, was able to handle a little better than we were. Max managed the tricky re-start well and from there it was a pretty straight forward race to the finish for second place. Alex's day was far from simple with a big lock-up into Turn 3 on the opening lap causing us to pit him early as the vibrations took us close to the safety threshold. He was then making good progress back through the field but was incredibly unlucky to pick up some debris, which pierced the radiator, causing his engine temperatures to rise which unfortunately forced us to retire him. Our congratulations also go to Renault, Daniel and Cyril for the podium today and now I think we are all intrigued to see what tattoo Daniel chooses for Cyril!"
Andreas Seidl, Team Principal: "A disappointing Sunday afternoon for us here in the Eifel. The team did a great job with the strategy and pit-stops, and both drivers drove excellent races. We looked set for good points with both cars - and perhaps better with Lando running in P4 and chasing Daniel to fight for a podium. Unfortunately, we had another power unit problem after we already had to install a new engine this morning on Lando's car. We need to wait for our colleagues from Renault to investigate, but it appears to be an issue similar to what Carlos experienced in Spa.
"On the positive side, Carlos raced to a good P5 and scored 10 important points."
Renault DP World F1 Team claimed its first FIA Formula 1 World Championship podium in its new guise in a thrilling Eifel Grand Prix at the Nurburgring as Daniel Ricciardo finished a superb third place. The result is the first podium for the team in 10 years.
Daniel climbed three places from sixth on the grid and held on for the final podium spot by just over 1.4seconds after a battling display at the wheel of the Renault R.S.20.
The 2010 Belgian Grand Prix was the last time the team was on the podium after Robert Kubica's third place at Spa-Francorchamps.
It was a superb team effort from pit wall, factory and garage allied with a stellar drive from the Australian, who had to battle and dig deep to preserve his tyres throughout the 60-lap race in tricky, cold conditions. After gaining a position on lap one, Daniel remained patient before passing Charles Leclerc for fourth with a move on the outside of Turn 2. After Valtteri Bottas pitted, Daniel briefly held onto third place, before pitting on lap 16 under the Virtual Safety Car for Medium tyres.
With others around him remaining out during the brief VSC period, Daniel's plan was to manage the Medium tyres until the end of the race. And with Sergio Perez pitting later and, therefore on much fresher rubber, Daniel faced a fight on his hands in the closing stages of the race. But a late Safety Car meant Daniel was gifted the opportunity to pit for Softs and a much smoother run to the flag. Perez put pressure on at the restart, but Daniel held firm, managing the gap to just over a second at the chequered flag.
Team-mate Esteban Ocon retired on lap 23 with a hydraulic issue while running strongly inside the points. After a difficult start off the line, Esteban recovered strongly and was driving well in the top half of the field before his retirement.
Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal: "It's a great feeling that and I would like to share this emotion we had at the track with every team member. It's been a huge, huge journey to get here and today is a milestone. We earned that podium: we've seen it coming for some time. We have had the potential to be there and today we had the right circumstances. While we might need events in front to happen, we have a car that is a good all-rounder and when this type of opportunity comes we have the right team to capitalise. Daniel drove a great race and fully deserved this - we will have to see about that bet now! It is a bit bittersweet as only one car was at the finish line. Esteban was driving a solid race until his car developed a hydraulic issue and we had to retire him. Without it we could have got a huge points result, which is very important as reliability is what will eventually define the championship in Abu Dhabi. But for now we need to celebrate and enjoy this moment as it is a moment that matters in the life of the team."
Jonathan Eddolls (Chief Race Engineer): "Overall as a team, we've had a really good result today. It was a challenging race as, like all the others, we headed into Sunday with very little information on tyre performance. Daniil was very unlucky when he came together with Albon which caused him to lose his front wing, especially because at that time we really had strong pace. That meant his race was pretty much over, as it did a lot of damage to the floor and other parts of the car. On the other side of the garage, Pierre drove a really good race, he managed the tyres well and gave us excellent feedback, allowing us to plan a good strategy. We reacted well to the late Safety Car, pitting Pierre while Leclerc in front didn't pit, so with fresher tyres we were able to attack him and finish ahead in P6. Today we scored more points than our main competitors, which allows us to close the gap in the fight for sixth position in the Constructors' Championship."
Franz Tost (Team Principal): "This race weekend was under quite difficult circumstances because of the weather conditions. As we weren't able to run on Friday, it wasn't an easy exercise for the engineers to find the correct setup, and that's maybe why we suffered a bit on Saturday during Qualifying, finishing only 12th and 13th. For today's race, we decided to put both drivers on the Prime tyre at the start, which meant the first laps were a bit tricky for them until the tyres reached a good temperature. However, they were both able to catch up and put in some really good lap times. Unfortunately, Daniil was involved in an incident with Alex Albon where he lost his front wing. The car was heavily damaged, especially on the floor, so Daniil could not keep the same performance level he showed before the collision and his race was heavily compromised. As for Pierre, he had a very good race. We called him in on lap 29 for the Base tyre because we thought we could make the one-stop strategy work. However, when the Safety Car was deployed on lap 44, we decided to bring him in again to change him to the Option tyre, on which he did a really good job chasing Sainz in the last 15 laps and finishing just a few tenths behind him in sixth position. The pit stops were good today and we made the right strategic decisions, so well done to the team. I think this was the best we could have extracted from the package today, and we closed the gap a bit to sixth position in the Constructors' Championship, so we are positive for the future. We're looking forward to continuing our good form in Portimao."
Otmar Szafnauer, CEO & Team Principal: "After a challenging weekend leading up to the race, it feels very satisfying to leave Germany with 16 more points and to reclaim third place in the Championship. Sergio was in the hunt for a podium and, with a tyre advantage, was closing quickly on Ricciardo until the safety car levelled things. Still, fourth place is an excellent result for the entire team. On the other side of the garage, Nico was fully deserving of being voted driver of the day by the fans. He was up against it, having only done ten laps in the car prior to the race, so to finish in eighth is a tremendous effort. We thank him for standing in for Lance, who is feeling a bit better today and has now returned home to continue his recovery. We're hopeful he will be back to full health in time for the next race in Portugal."
There are many points to reflect on as the dust settles on the Eifel Grand Prix, a race that gave us emotions at both ends of the spectrum from start to finish. We went from elation to heartbreak within a corner as both cars made massive gains at the start, only for Kimi to be forced off the track to avoid a rival just seconds later and lose his newly-found position.
We had overtakes, great defending, a few bits of carbon shed, as both Antonio and Kimi climbed the order to run in P8 and P10 ahead of the second round of stops, fuelling our dreams of a double-points finish. We saw those dreams dissolve as a late Safety Car hurt our chances to keep those positions - but so is the way of Formula One, sometimes. In the end, we bring home one point, another little step forward as we continue to make progress. A top ten finish, the second in three races, showing we are in this battle and we're not backing off.
The emotions started right at the lights. By virtue of making it off the grid today, Kimi Raikkonen is now officially the most experienced Formula One driver in the world, with 323 starts to his name. This illustrious record means he has now taken part in more than 31% of all Grand Prix events in history - nearly a third of all Formula One races ever.
We would have loved to celebrate this milestone with a point for the veteran Finn; alas, the racing gods had different plans. Antonio's fine P10 is still a reward for our efforts this weekend, one we will cherish - especially for the combative way the Italian fought his way through the field, defending his position all the way to the finish line.
Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal: "Scoring a point is always a positive result, but what is even more important is the way in which we have scored it. The team did an excellent job today, showing grit in difficult conditions and being ready to take the chances that we had along the way. We fought on merit with the cars we had around us, we kept behind a driver the calibre of Vettel despite the pressure he applied on Antonio for pretty much the whole of the race and we put in some good overtakes. The only regret is with that late Safety Car: we could have been on course for a double-points finish, but the shuffling of the positions it created meant we lost some ground with too little time to make it up. Still, to finish in the top ten for the second time in three races is a positive on which we can build for the rest of the season."
Haas F1 Team completed the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix with Romain Grosjean ninth and Kevin Magnussen 13th at the Nurburgring on Sunday.
Grosjean started 16th on Pirelli's P Zero Yellow medium tires but fell to the back of the field on a frantic first lap. At an atypically cold grand prix Grosjean extended his stint and rose up to 11th position before pitting on lap 29 of 60 for a set of White hard tires. Grosjean returned to the circuit in 15th spot but gained spots to hold 10th position when the safety car was deployed due to an issue for McLaren's Lando Norris.
Grosjean took the restart in seventh on harder and older tires than his competitors but held on to a points-paying spot by greeting the checkered flag in ninth. It marked Haas F1 Team's best result of the 2020 campaign and a return to the top 10 for Grosjean for the first time since Hockenheim last July.
Magnussen took the start on Pirelli's P Zero Red soft tires and had a customary strong first lap as he rose two positions from 15th to 13th. Magnussen came in for medium tires on lap 14 and emerged in contention for the top 10 positions, pitting again for another set of mediums on lap 36, before joining Grosjean in staying out when the safety car was deployed.
Magnussen initially maintained his place - holding P11 but lost out after rubbing wheels with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and later had to cede position to Alfa Romeo rival Kimi Raikkonen. Magnussen completed the 60 laps in 13th position.
Haas F1 Team maintains ninth in the Constructors' Championship with three points.
Haas F1 Team will be back in action for the Portuguese Grand Prix, to be held at the Algarve International Circuit, from October 23 to 25.
Guenther Steiner: "It was a happy day today for us. We come away with some points - which is fantastic for the team as they work hard, everybody did a good job. I don't know if it's because we had no Friday practice, maybe it made it a more level playing field. Obviously, we got a little bit lucky as a few cars dropped out at the front, I'm conscious of that, but in the end we took the opportunity. It's a good feeling again to come away with points. Hopefully we can have more of that this year - we'll keep trying hard for it."
Nicholas Latifi finished 14th in an actioned packed Eifel Grand Prix. George Russell's race unfortunately ended due to a collision caused by Kimi Raikkonen.
George started the race 17th, with Nicholas lining up 18th, both on the soft Pirelli tyre. Nicholas ran a two-stop strategy, pitting first on lap 14 and then on lap 33 for the medium compound on both occasions.
Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: It is a shame that George's race ended as soon as it did as he was making decent progress and was in a good race with the cars that eventually finished in the points. Nicholas was unfortunate with the timing of the safety car, which helped our rivals more than us. However, overall, we didn't have the pace to achieve a better finish today, but we have enjoyed our return to the Nurburgring and the shortened race weekend, which made yesterday quite difficult but has served as useful preparation for the upcoming race at Imola.
A hard-fought Eifel Grand Prix yielded another podium for Max and a top-six finish for Pierre on a day of mixed emotions for both Aston Martin Red Bull Racing and Scuderia AlphaTauri.
While Max and Alex both started in the top ten on soft tyres, the AlphaTauri pair of Pierre and Daniil had free choice in P12 and P13 respectively so both started on the medium compound. At the start, Max attacked Lewis Hamilton but settled into third place and kept the two Mercedes cars ahead honest, while Alex slipped back to run sixth. A lock up on the first lap gave Alex a big flat spot that meant he was forced to make a pit stop on lap seven for safety reasons, switching to medium tyres while the other three cars ran longer.
Unfortunately, as Alex was fighting back through traffic he misjudged a gap after overtaking Daniil on lap 16, clipping the AlphaTauri's front wing and breaking it off. Daniil was forced to do a whole lap at slow speed and came in for a new front wing and hard tyres to try and salvage something from the race. After Alex was given a five-second time penalty for the incident, some debris then pierced his radiator system and led to rising temperatures that meant he had to retire the car. That left two cars fighting in the points, with Max climbing to second place after Red Bull cleverly took advantage of a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) period. Valtteri Bottas had made a mistake and needed to take an early first stop, but a brief VSC soon after offered the team the chance to bring Max in and lose less time, emerging behind Hamilton but ahead of Bottas.
Pierre ran long on the mediums but then switched to a set of hard tyres at the halfway point, and had climbed into the top eight when Lando Norris retired to trigger a Safety Car. At this point, Max, Pierre and Daniil all stopped for soft tyres with 15 laps remaining. Max held onto second while Pierre made excellent progress, jumping Romain Grosjean instantly at the restart and then pulling a great move around the outside of Charles Leclerc with nine laps to go to take sixth place. Unfortunately for Daniil, he was unable to recover any further as the rest of the drivers ahead of him could also fit fresh rubber late on and was classified 15th. Max also grabbed an extra point for setting the fastest race lap, on the very last lap of the race.
Toyoharu Tanabe, Technical Director: "Today's Eifel Grand Prix was held in exceptionally low ambient and track temperatures. Starting from third, Max produced another excellent second place finish for Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, just as he did two weeks ago in Sochi. He also set the fastest race lap right at the end of the Grand Prix, which is a good sign for the upcoming races. For Scuderia AlphaTauri, Pierre drove a very strong race to go from 12th on the grid to sixth, thanks to several exciting passing moves. His and Max's performances are both very encouraging for the rest of the season. Unfortunately, Daniil and Alex were less successful this afternoon. In fact, Kvyat's race was compromised when he lost his front wing after the collision with Albon and later, the team decided to retire Alex, after debris caused a radiator to leak, which led to a PU issue. In two weeks' time, we go to what is another brand new venue for F1 in Portugal, therefore we will be doing a lot of simulation work to prepare for it to the best of our ability. Finally, on behalf of Honda, congratulations to Lewis Hamilton on the great achievement of equalling Michael Schumacher's record of 91 F1 wins."
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton took his 91st career win to equal Michael Schumacher's record. Hamilton, locked in a close duel with Red Bull's Max Verstappen, stopped twice, going from P Zero Red soft tyres to P Zero Yellow medium, to soft tyres again for the final stint. Verstappen followed an identical strategy, stopping on the same laps as Hamilton.
The strategy was influenced by a virtual safety car and then a safety car. At the virtual safety car, around quarter of the way into the race, a number of drivers made their first stops: including the top three finishers. When the safety car came out, several drivers made their second stops: again including the podium finishers. There was then effectively a 10-lap sprint race to the finish, with the frontrunners on soft tyres.
Renault's Daniel Ricciardo finished third, using a similar strategy to the top three. In doing so, he sealed Renault's first podium since 2011.
Just one driver stopped only once: Haas's Romain Grosjean, who moved from the medium to the P Zero White hard tyre on lap 28 and finished ninth from 16th on the grid.
The highest climber was Racing Point's Nico Hulkenberg, who started 20th after being drafted in for qualifying, and finished eighth: having followed the same tyre strategy as the top five (soft-medium-soft).
Temperatures remained cold: just 11 degrees ambient at the end of the race, with 19 degrees of track temperature. This made keeping the tyres in the right temperature window particularly challenging: especially at the safety car re-start.
Mario Isola: "Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton for equalling Michael Schumacher's record of 91 wins, and also Kimi Raikkonen for racking up a new record of grand prix starts. This was an extremely unusual race with the cold weather and lack of running on Friday, All the preparation work was done in one session on Saturday, but although there was no information about tyre wear, it emerged that there was less graining than expected, which prompted some teams to think about stopping only once. In the end, we some saw some light graining on the soft compound, but this did not influence the race outcome. The race strategy was largely influenced by the two safety cars - virtual and real - which were perfectly timed for the frontrunners and gave us all an exciting finale."
