Lewis Hamilton claims the FIA Formula One Drivers' Championship for the seventh time - a record equalling total. Lewis claimed his 94th F1 career victory - his tenth of the 2020 season and his second at Istanbul. Valtteri finished in P14 after a challenging race.
Lewis (307 points) leads the Drivers' Championship by 110 points from Valtteri (197 points) - an unassailable lead in the Drivers' Championship with 78 points still to be scored.
The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team (504 points) leads Red Bull Racing (240 points) by 264 points in the Constructors' Championship.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal and CEO, accepted the Constructors' trophy on behalf of the team.
Ola Kallenius, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz AG: Huge congratulations to Lewis on this seventh World Championship - what an incredible achievement! Lewis has been a part of our Mercedes family for over 20 years now. He joined us as an incredible karting talent; today, he's one of the best drivers of all times. Lewis keeps improving even when it might seem like there's little left to perfect, and I'm excited to see where else his journey will take him. It's not just Lewis' development on track that is impressive, but also his inspiring journey off track. Lewis has become a passionate advocate for more diversity and inclusion. He has also taken tangible steps to support this important cause. As a team and as a company we stand with him. We're proud you're part of our family, Lewis. Thank you for seven world championships powered by Mercedes!
Toto Wolff: Today once again showed how Lewis is capable to cope with a situation that went against him in the beginning, he was the one who kept it on the road, looked after the tyres and let the race come to him. And that made the difference today, he was hungry as a lion. Driving a car on slicks at the end, with the risk of rain, he just brought it home for a 94th win in Formula One and to take the seventh title - it's such an impressive achievement. This year has been very special because it was so difficult for everybody in the world. I hope we have been able to bring people some joy, some entertainment, and coming out on top after a race like this feels incredible. Looking at Lewis, we have such a strong relationship that has built up over our years together; the team is 100 per cent behind him, he is 100 per cent behind the team, and this was one of those days where that trust really shined, taking the win against all odds. We simply need to say congratulations to Lewis and to recognise the amazing job he is doing, setting new benchmarks in this sport. We will be flying home together, so we will have to see how we celebrate - I'm sure we will find a way!
Andrew Shovlin: We didn't need a reminder as to why Lewis deserves to be a seven-time champion today, but he gave us one anyway. He deserves every bit of success that he has had, and it was a privilege to see him celebrate that championship on the top step of the podium. The race itself was pretty unpredictable. We were able to make some changes to the car with the rules around 'change of climatic conditions' and for the first time this weekend managed to get the tyres working. The opening laps were clearly quite tricky, and it was surprisingly hard to get close to anyone to pass, especially when we didn't have DRS. Valtteri had a good start but spun trying to avoid a Renault at turn one and then had contact later at turn 9 causing some damage that compromised his car for the race. Lewis also had a good start but ran a bit long into turn 9 and lost a couple places which made his day more difficult as he spent a long time stuck behind Seb. The strategy ended up being more straight forward than we'd expected, the biggest point of discussion on the pit wall was how far we could go on a set of inters and we didn't really know the answer to that as we've gone that far before. Lewis did a great job of looking after the tyres and managed that stint well avoiding the need for an extra stop. We've still got three races to go and are looking forward to some warm weather in the Middle East and hopefully finishing this season with some strong results.
16 places gained overall and a third podium finish of the season, as well as the best team result of the year. Today, Scuderia Ferrari delivered the perfect antidote to yesterday's very disappointing qualifying in the Turkish Grand Prix.
The result was down to a great job from everyone at the Istanbul Park track as well as from those back in Maranello, including Team Principal Mattia Binotto and especially from Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc who had started from 11th and 12th respectively. They went on to finish third and fourth and brought home 27 points. It means that while the team is still sixth in the Constructors' classification it is now just 24 points off third place. This was Seb's first podium of 2020 and follows on from Charles' in Austria and Great Britain.
Vettel's result owed much to his first lap when he jumped all the way up to fourth, then third next time round after Lewis Hamilton made a mistake at turn 11. Drivers starting on the right hand side of the grid had a clear advantage in terms of grip and Seb made the most of it. Charles, like the others starting on the left, got away badly, losing two places.
The early stages saw Sebastian fending off the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Alex Albon, while out in front were the Racing Point duo of Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez. Charles however was losing time in the pack and so the team decided to bring him in early, changing from the wets to the intermediate tyres. He immediately had a great pace, moving into the top ten in the space of just five laps.
On lap 32, Stroll and Perez still led, while Albon had got past Seb. Charles had just pitted for his second set of intermediates and was ninth ahead of Lando Norris in the McLaren. On lap 34, Vettel pitted for new intermediates, rejoining ahead of Albon but losing places to Hamilton and Verstappen. On lap 40, Seb passed Stroll for fourth place but shortly after, he had to give best to Charles who was coming back at a stronger pace on newer rubber.
Charles caught and passed Verstappen, who then pitted, which handed fourth place back to Seb. In the closing laps, the Scuderia pair rapidly closed on Perez in the Racing Point. They pounced on him on the very last lap. Perez made a mistake at turn 11 and Charles got past but Checo stuck with him and tried to get the place back. As Leclerc tried to defend by braking late, he went wide at turn 12. Sebastian made the most of the scrap to get ahead of his team-mate, crossing the line just three tenths behind Perez, with Charles fourth. The race was won by Hamilton who took his seventh world title, thus equalling Michael Schumacher's record. Congratulations to Lewis for a very well deserved championship win!
Statistics. This was Sebastian's 121st podium, his 55th with Ferrari and the Scuderia's 773rd. Formula 1 now has its final short break of the year before the Bahrain Grand Prix kicks off the final season-ending triple-header of 2020.
Mattia Binotto, Team Principal: "After a very difficult Saturday, it's great to end up as the team that scored the most points on Sunday. We knew that, in these conditions the race would come to those who made the fewest mistakes. Overall, as a team, we did a good job, particularly in terms of strategy. We made brave choices at the right time. It's also worth noting that we might have done even better, getting both drivers on the podium. Overnight, we worked very hard at the track and back in Maranello to work out why we hadn't got the tyres to work yesterday and today, that collective effort paid off, as could be seen with both the wets and the intermediates.
"It's particularly pleasing that Sebastian finally got into the top three. He drove a very strong race, especially that fantastic start. Charles was very quick for long parts of the race. If it had not been for the start and that final slip on the last lap, he would have finished second, but he still had a great race. We've made up a bit of ground in the Constructors' classification, but the gap to those ahead of us is still significant. Here in Istanbul, we confirmed that we have been making progress since Monza and we want to continue doing that in the final three races of the year in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi.
"Finally, I wish to congratulate Lewis for this very well deserved Drivers' title, which means he equals the number held by Michael Schumacher."
Christian Horner, Team Principal: "In conditions that we felt strong in all weekend we fell short in an incredibly challenging race. Max and Alex both lost out after a very slippery getaway on extreme wet tyres, with both dropping back into the pack emerging fourth and fifth at the end of the first lap. We were able to get the jump on Seb after the first pit stop, giving Max track position and enabling him to close up and attack Sergio. Max struggled to make a move without DRS at that stage of the race and got too close to Sergio in his wake and had a spin. We were then forced to pit him for new intermediate tyres putting him on the back foot and well down the order. Alex then took on the challenge and was quicker than the two Racing Points ahead before also experiencing tyre issues and a spin which saw us pit him earlier than we would have liked and from there on both drivers were well down the order. Sixth and seventh are disappointing positions to end our 300th race at a weekend that held so much promise but congratulations must go to Lewis for achieving his record equaling seventh world title in truly impressive style out there today."
Andreas Seidl, Team Principal: "What a recovery! Friday and Saturday were both very difficult days and delivered the worst starting positions we've had this season so far. Last night it was important to focus on the task ahead and maintain the belief that there would be opportunities to make a comeback today. Big thank you to both drivers and the team for an excellent job in executing a clean race in incredibly difficult conditions.
"We had a competitive car today, and good work from the team on the pit-wall, in the pit-box and back at Mission Control allowed the drivers to show their qualities and deliver a very strong result. With three races to go, P5, P8 and Lando's fastest lap of the race means we scored important points for the Constructors' Championship.
"I'd also like to congratulate Lewis on a seventh Drivers' World Championship title. It's an incredible achievement and all of us at McLaren are very proud that he started his career with us."
Renault DP World F1 Team scored a solitary point from the Turkish Grand Prix after a frustrating afternoon in difficult conditions at Istanbul Park with Daniel Ricciardo finishing tenth and Esteban Ocon eleventh.
Things had looked good off the start with both drivers - on the preferred, right side of the grid - rocketing off the line to contest the top four positions at Turn 1. However, that would prove to be the downfall when Daniel was unfortunate to clip Esteban, which forced the Frenchman to spin. Daniel had been nudged by Lewis Hamilton on the inside of Turn 1, which led to his minor contact with Esteban who recovered to fourteenth. Esteban was hit again by Valtteri Bottas at Turn 9, which caused a left-rear puncture and he had to pit for new Wets on lap one.
Daniel held onto seventh until the first pit-stop, with both drivers pitting for new Intermediates on lap 10. Esteban began his recovery from there to edge his way back into points contention. Daniel stopped again for Intermediates on lap 32, but he couldn't get them into the optimum operating window and slipped back to ninth, before conceding that position late on. Despite an impressive 48-lap effort on Intermediates, Esteban followed Daniel home in eleventh.
The team is fifth in the Constructors' Championship on 136 points.
Marcin Budkowski, Executive Director: "Today's race result is very disappointing. It was unfortunate that Daniel and Esteban touched at the start. Daniel looked competitive in the first part of the race, but his pace significantly deteriorated after his second stop as he struggled with his tyres. Esteban drove a solid race to finish eleventh and that was the best we could have hoped for after the first lap incidents and the lack of pace with the Intermediate tyres. Big congratulations to Lewis for his seventh title. We now turn our focus to the final three races in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi where we expect to be competitive on more conventional and grippy surfaces and aim to fight back for third position in the Championship."
Jonathan Eddolls (Chief Race Engineer): "It was a difficult race for us, starting with the penalty for Pierre. We were disappointed, but we'll accept it and move on. It was always going to be a difficult day starting so far back on the grid. We learned a bit from our poor performance yesterday and tried to apply those learnings to the running of the car today, I think we improved, but it wasn't enough to propel us up the grid and challenge for points. The conditions were quite difficult, and I think it's fair to say the car didn't have the pace that we would have expected it to have in the dry. There's a lot for us to learn and we've gathered a lot of data, so we need to analyse, learn from it, and come back stronger in the future if we face these conditions again."
Franz Tost (Team Principal): "First of all, it was nice to be back in Istanbul. The city, where we had an amazing marketing event at the beginning of the week, is beautiful and the race track is very nice. Friday was quite a successful day, we were competitive during FP1 and FP2, finishing both in the top seven positions. Therefore, we expected to show a good performance for the rest of the weekend. Unfortunately, the weather changed on Saturday and became wet. We were totally lost, we couldn't find the proper setup, and as a result, Pierre qualified P15 and Daniil P17. This was of course very disappointing, as the car had absolutely no grip due to the wrong setup. Following the fire on Pierre's PU in Portimao, we decided that once he had not qualified well in Qualifying, we would change the Power Unit to put us in a safer situation for the rest of the season. We decided to go for this option yesterday evening, so we applied for a PU change to the FIA, which was accepted. However, following some penalties, Pierre ended up in P13 so we wanted to continue with the old Power Unit and not start from the back of the grid. We informed the FIA, but in the end, we were penalized. We started from the back of the grid and we finished in 12th and 13th position, which was very disappointing because the car had much more potential."
Otmar Szafnauer, CEO & Team Principal: "A podium is a great result for the team after an excellent drive by Checo. We can be very proud of the fact we led a significant amount of the race in very difficult conditions with both cars. As we've come to expect with Checo, he managed the wet tyre very well early on and the team timed his switch to intermediates perfectly. To manage the intermediate on a changing track surface for 48 laps was a huge challenge, but he managed it to secure P2. It's a shame Lance didn't get the result he deserved. He handled the pressure of starting on pole position very well. He was flawless today and carved out a lead of over 10 seconds, when his tyres worked as expected. It was tough to judge the conditions, but we made the right call to switch Lance to intermediates, rather than wait for slick conditions that ultimately never arrived. We need to look into why Lance struggled so much with graining on the new intermediates because that prevented him from joining Checo on the podium. Regardless, today's result is a memorable one that has lifted the team back into P3 in the Constructors' Championship, which is a real boost going into the final few races of the season."
The fourteenth round of the season turned out to be a rollercoaster affair as a thrilling race unfolded in Istanbul. Following a strong showing in qualifying, with the best Saturday results of the season and both cars in Q3, things got a bit more challenging for Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN in the race.
The threat of continuous rain did not materialise and the race turned into a battle on a gradually drying track, with drivers tip-toeing around on a soaked circuit at the start, then gaining confidence and speed as the surface improved and the field moved onto intermediate tyres.
In these conditions, keeping hold of our lofty starting positions was always going to be a tall order: Kimi and Antonio had a strong opening stint, holding their own, but once on the green intermediates, things became harder.
Antonio's race ended abruptly at the start of his second stint, a technical issue forcing him to park the car by the side of the track. For Kimi, it became a solitary race eventually closed in 15th place. Despite the point-less return for our efforts, the good display shown in qualifying represents a big confidence boost for the team. With our direct rivals not scoring and only three rounds left on the calendar, our grip on eighth place in the championship intensifies. The finish line is in sight, but there is still a lot of work to do - and our team is ready to rise to the challenge.
Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal: "We weren't able to capitalise on the very strong performance we delivered in qualifying yesterday, when we were among the fastest on track. Our race was challenging, with tyres being very hard to manage: we would have probably been able to hold our own on a wet track, but in progressively drying conditions we did struggle. In the end, we lost Antonio due to a technical issue early in the race and Kimi finished 15th, which is not what we had hoped. As a positive, at least, we didn't lose any ground on our championship rivals and we are one step closer to confirming our eighth place in the standings, with three races left."
Haas F1 Team driver Kevin Magnussen finished 17th while Romain Grosjean was unable to reach the conclusion of Formula 1's Turkish Grand Prix, held Sunday at Intercity Istanbul Park.
Magnussen started from 13th on Pirelli's Cinturato Blue wet tires as the field struggled for traction on a wet and slippery surface. Magnussen made a customary strong getaway to capture a top 10 spot and preserved his position after exchanging wets for Green intermediate rubber on lap eight. Magnussen remained in touch in the points-paying spots but upon coming into the pit lane for a second time on lap 34 a cross-threaded wheel nut on the left-rear tire delayed his progress. Magnussen had to stop at the end of the pit lane, wait for his mechanics to address the situation, prior to re-joining the action. The significant time loss relegated Magnussen to the rear and he classified 17th.
Grosjean took the start 17th on wet tires and picked up one position on a frantic opening lap. Grosjean switched to intermediate tires on lap eight and continued to circulate in the treacherous conditions before opting for another set of intermediates on lap 37. Grosjean was tapped into a spin by Williams' Nicholas Latifi and on lap 52 came into the pits to retire the car, which was two laps down, having sustained substantial damage to the left-hand side of the VF-20's floor.
Haas F1 Team maintains ninth in the Constructors' Championship with three points.
Guenther Steiner: "The race was going in the right direction, at least for Kevin (Magnussen). We were solid there in the top 10, looking quite stable, and then we had a bad pit stop again. That took us out of the points. From there on we just couldn't do a lot. It was a very interesting and exciting race, but we weren't part of it to get points. There's nobody else to blame but ourselves. We need to fix this going forward."
George Russell finished 16th whilst Nicholas Latifi retired from the Turkish Grand Prix. George and Nicholas both started from the pitlane on the intermediate compound tyre.
George ran a two-stop race, pitting on laps 32 and 42 each time for the intermediate Pirelli tyre. The team retired the car of Nicholas Latifi due to damage following a collision with Romain Grosjean.
Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: The weekend ended as it began with tricky conditions throughout. We chose to start both cars from the garage on Inters in the hope that we could make some early gains with hot tyres and avoiding the stint on Extreme wet tyres. George made good initial progress and the plan was working well. However, as the tyres began to wear, there was a difficult phase when used tyres had insufficient rubber left, but new tyres were unsuitable for the drying conditions. Nicholas was forced to retire after a collision with the Haas damaged his car. Unfortunately, the track never dried enough for slick tyres as this would have added another dimension to an exciting race and would have suited our strategy.
It has been a very difficult weekend throughout but the team in Turkey have acquitted themselves very well and we have gained a lot more experience of the Pirelli tyres, especially the Inters. Sadly, we just didn't have the pace this weekend, but we look forward to pushing again for the final triple-header sequence in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi.
A dramatic Turkish Grand Prix ended up as a case of what might have been for the Honda-powered teams as we picked up points with both Aston Martin Red Bull Racing cars.
Pierre was forced to start from the back of the grid after we planned to change his power unit overnight but the reversed the decision, and he joined the rest of the field in using the full wet tyres at the start following rain in the hour before the race.
When the lights went out it was a fight for grip on a track that had been slippery all weekend, and Max and Alex both struggled off the line but pulled off strong moves in the opening corners to run fourth and fifth respectively.
The two Scuderia AlphaTauri drivers also had impressive opening laps to gain a number of positions, running just outside the top ten.
The first challenge was timing when the track had improved enough to switch to intermediate tyres, Max and Alex were both more comfortable on the full wets and were quickest on track once in clear air, with the lead trio of Lance Stroll, Sergio Perez and Sebastian Vettel making their pit stops.
Daniil stopped on lap eight for intermediates alongside a number of other drivers so rejoined still outside the points, while Pierre came in two laps later and lost a bit of ground. With Kevin Magnussen running long, the top ten were allowed to pull far clear as those behind got held up at this point behind the Haas.
Max made his pit stop on lap 11 and set off after the top two - emerging just between Perez and Vettel - and Alex stopped on lap 12 but rejoined behind Vettel and Lewis Hamilton.
After a lap under the Virtual Safety Car, Alex turned his intermediate tyres on quickly and cleared Hamilton into Turn 12 before diving down the inside of Vettel at Turn 7 with an excellent move to take P4.
Sadly the race started to unravel from there as Max - the fastest man on track - spun trying to pass Perez for second place, needing to take on a new set of intermediates as a result after dropping behind Alex, Vettel and Hamilton. He was then stuck in traffic further back despite his pace, leaving Alex to take up the charge.
After closing in quickly on the two leaders, Alex was in a strong position but started to lose grip from his tyres as the track dried out. A number of drivers chose to stop for new intermediates as well as they wore out, Pierre doing so on lap 33 but Daniil pushing on with a one-stop strategy.
Alex then had a spin at Turn 4 on his old tyres and had to take on fresh intermediates on lap 34, climbing up to fifth place after passing Stroll - struggling on his new tyres - but then losing out to Carlos Sainz. Max climbed back into the top three but made one more pit stop and rejoined in seventh place behind Alex, the pair trying to chase down the Ferraris ahead but struggling more for pace as the track continued to dry. Despite another spin, Max then passed Alex with seven laps remaining and the pair came home close together in sixth and seventh to pick up 14 points.
After splitting strategies - with Daniil one-stopping and Pierre making two stops - the AlphaTauri pair stayed out of trouble but the field had been split by Magnussen's strategy early on. Although they were less than two seconds apart, 12th and 13th was the final result.
Toyoharu Tanabe, Technical Director, Honda Racing F1: "Today, the Istanbul Park track again produced difficult conditions as it rained prior to the start and, with low temperatures, the surface never really dried until the end. This meant that tyre management was the most critical factory. It was rather disappointing that the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing pair could only finish sixth and seventh as we had seen over the weekend that they had the pace to do better than that, but this was an unpredictable race. As for the Scuderia AlphaTauri drivers, they both had a difficult time, especially Pierre starting from the back and with overtaking proving tricky, they were unable to get into the points. Now we will just work hard and focus on the final three races of the season with the aim of ending the year with some good results. Finally, on behalf of Honda, our congratulations go to Lewis Hamilton. He took his seventh title in the best possible way, winning a difficult race from sixth on the grid - a great achievement."
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was crowned world champion for a record-equalling seventh time, his fourth title in a row, after winning an incredibly tricky Turkish Grand Prix. Hamilton used the Cinturato Blue full wet tyres for eight laps followed by the Cinturato Green intermediates for 50 laps - one of only three drivers (with Racing Point's Sergio Perez and AlphaTauri's Daniil Kvyat) to stop just once.
The entire field started on the Cinturato Blue full wet tyres, apart from the two Williams cars, which started on the Cinturato Green intermediate.
The crossover point - at which time it became faster to switch to the intermediates - was reached within 10 laps of the race start, prompting a flurry of pit stops onto the intermediate. Most drivers then stopped again, for fresh intermediates.
Williams driver George Russell completed the longest first stint on his starting set of intermediates, running them for 32 laps. Hamilton ran his second stint on the intermediates for 50 laps in the race, Perez for 48.
The weather remained cool all day, with track and ambient temperatures in the region of 13 degrees centigrade, and rain before the race start. Conditions dried out throughout the race, but nobody decided to use the slicks - due to a slippery track and with a risk of rain predicted for the end of the race that never quite materialised.
Mario Isola: "Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton for an incredible seventh world title taken in real style from sixth on the grid, where managing his tyres brilliantly was paramount to ensure his place in history. He made just one stop and effectively turned his intermediate tyres into slicks by the end of the race, to extract the very maximum from them. From the beginning it was clear that this was going to be a very complicated race where managing the start in the wet and subsequently dealing with uncertain conditions on a drying track would be crucial, and this proved to be exactly the case. Judging the crossover point was key, both from wets to inters after the start, and then - in the second half of the race - working out whether or not the surface would provide enough grip to switch to slicks, or if the best option was another set of intermediates for the second stint. Assessing the crossover point from wets to intermediate was relatively straightforward using the data from yesterday; however deciding what to do for the second stop was much more complicated in these very unusual conditions".
