Mercedes driver, Lewis Hamilton, won his 91st Grand Prix at the Eifel grand prix in Germany and in a monumental race equalized Michael Schumacher’s record for most Formula One wins.
Hamilton now stands one race away from being the new record holder, with six races to go till the end on the season, Hamilton has every chance to break that record.
Max Verstappen came in behind Hamilton claiming second place and Daniel Riccardo came in third for Renault claiming his first podium since his last victory with Red Bull in 2018.
Despite starting behind Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas on the starting grid, Hamilton kept his cool and gave Bottas the fight we all wanted to see.
Lap 13 of the race proved to be unlucky for Bottas who locked his brakes around the first corner allowing Hamilton to trail very close behind, Hamilton desperate for the win, managed to sweep past the outside of Bottas on the second bend to take the lead.
Just five laps later any hopes Bottas had for reclaiming the lead were shattered after a suspected engine problem causing him to lose power in his Mercedes, setting him back in the ranks and straight into the pits where he his race ended.
Bottas was not the only driver whose race finished early, George Russell was taken out after a collision with Kimi Raikkonen on the first corner of the 14th lap. Raikkonen took the inside of Russell’s car and clipped the front of the vehicle sending Russel off the track and destroying his right back wheel and suspension. Raikkonen faced a 10 second penalty for his carelessness on the day that he also achieved a record for the most Grand Prix starts.
Despite 20-year driver, Lando Norris having an extraordinary start and maintaining a top 5 position throughout the majority of the race, he was unfortunately taken out on his 44th lap due to an engine failure. The race director took the decision to deploy a safety car to the track after Norris’s departure instead of the virtual safety car of which annoyed several drivers as the overtaken field were allowed to pass and with Hamilton and Verstappen’s new soft tires applied, they were worried about not being able to warm up their tires enough against a field of driver who could drive at a full capacity and now had warmer tires. However, this did not stop Hamilton from maintaining his lead.
On the final lap of the race, Max Verstappen stole the quickest lap and a bonus point from under Hamilton’s nose by 0.006th of a second despite Hamilton consistently breaking the fastest lap time throughout the whole race.
Third place driver, Daniel Riccardo was outstanding with his performance and Renault were ecstatic with the result, possibly with the exception of one of Riccardo’s team members who now has a tattoo pending after a promise that if Riccardo ended one race on the podium this season he would get a tattoo chosen by Riccardo himself.
Hamilton was congratulated by Mik Schumacher (son of Michael Schumacher) with one of Michael’s race helmets after equalling his record and now stands 69 points clear of Valtteri Bottas who is in second place with a total of 161 points.
The next race taking place on the 25th will be on a new track for Formula One in Algarve, Portugal and here we may see Hamilton break the Schumacher record.