Finishing the 2020 season on top of the table, the combination of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas have once again played a crucial role in bringing in the victory home to Mercedes. Hamilton dominated the tracks and Grand Prix as the Englishman won 11 GPs and Bottas earned2 GPs. Mercedes once again had a classy season despite the COVID-19 pandemic hitting the world hard. It was a no brainer as the team won 13 GPs out of the 17, which were held around the world. Hamilton is slowly closing in on F1 legend Michael Schumacher’s record as the Englishman had a dominating year with Mercedes as he once again clinched the World Championships.
Despite Mercedes being near perfect in 2020, the battle was also head-to-head as Bottas and Hamilton would often go at it during the laps in turns of overtaking and dominating positions. In this article, we look at Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas’ 2020 season.
Lewis Hamilton
Winning three consecutive World Championships, Hamilton is cut above the rest. A modern-day legend in the tracks, the Englishman has now won 6 World Championships and is one away from tying Schumacher. Given the commitment, focus and determination fans and experts get to see in Hamilton’s drive, there is no doubt that Schumacher’s record will be overtaken by the Englishman.
Breaking and setting records of his own, Hamilton is on the verge of breaking another Schumacher record and that is having the most GP wins with the same team. Schumacher has 72 wins with Ferrari and Hamilton is currently on 67 with Mercedes.
Despite the challenges faced in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that did not stop Mercedes from losing focus, especially with their frontman maintaining his calm at diverse crucial points. Hamilton won 11 GPs in 2020. It only goes to prove that Hamilton is nowhere near done. Here is the list of GPs won by Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.
1. Styrian Grand Prix
2. Hungarian Grand Prix
3. British Grand Prix
4. Spanish Grand Prix
5. Belgian Grand Prix
6. Tuscan Grand Prix
7. Eifel Grand Prix
8. Portuguese Grand Prix
9. Emilia Romagna Grand Prix
10. Turkish Grand Prix
11. Bahrain Grand Prix
Talented and determined, there is no stopping Hamilton as the Englishman will look to shatter more records and create new ones in 2021.
Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes’ second go-to man, Valtteri Bottas opened the 2020 Formula 1 with a win in the Austrian Grand Prix and won the Russian Grand Prix. However, on many occasions, Bottas was agonizingly close to finishing first. If there was any racer who could overtake Hamilton and leave the Englishman in the dust, it was Bottas. While Bottas started the campaign on a bright note with a win in the Austrian GP, he gave serious competition for the pole position. But, at certain times, he failed to make the most of the chances. Be it to untimely turns, debris strikes or power unit problems in 2020, Bottas could be seen mostly catching up.
In the Turkey GP, Bottas had the misfortune of spinning after taking heavy damage in the start where in the Bahrain GP, the Finnish racer suffered two punctures. While it can mostly be seen as misfortunate, Bottas has shown glimpses of challenging Hamilton for the title in the 2021 season. It will be interesting to see the battle between Hamilton and Bottas.