10 moments that decided the 2020 F1 title

Lewis Hamilton has sealed his record-equalling seventh Formula 1 world title, putting him level with Michael Schumacher at the top of the only statistical tally that really counts: championship totals.

But this has been far from a normal season, even if Mercedes' dominance has continued largely uninterrupted, and in several ways increased. The coronavirus pandemic upended the expected campaign, causing a four-month gap between the end of winter testing and the season's start finally taking place in Austria. Hamilton's seventh title triumph comes in the shortest season he has entered since 2009, with the ever-present threat of race cancellations or missing events via a positive test hanging over the drivers.

The on-track action may not have featured the many plot twists that have characterised some of Hamilton's other victorious seasons, but nevertheless his latest glory included several key points that eased his path to the title, which we pick out here.

1. Mercedes wins winter testing, but needs an unexpected time benefit to fix reliability

Mercedes picked up where it left off at the end of 2019, by topping the two pre-season tests at Barcelona, back in the pre-COVID lifetime of early 2020. But things were not all smooth for F1's dominant team.

Mercedes had to swap engines twice over the course of the two weeks at Barcelona, with an engine failure costing Valtteri Bottas running in the first test and Hamilton losing out due to an oil-pressure anomaly in the second. Plus, at Mercedes' customer squad, Williams, three power units were used due to problems that cost the team plenty of laps.

Ahead of the scheduled Melbourne season opener, Mercedes knew it had work to do on reliability, and it has been suggested to Autosport that it headed to Australia expecting trouble. But after that race was shelved at the last-minute as the pandemic bit hard around the world, the resulting lockdowns - once the eventual 63-day factory shutdown (49 for the engine divisions) period had passed - gave the team time to implement a fix, which meant it avoided serious reliability dramas in the two Austrian races. Still, the Red Bull Ring's harsh kerbs caused severe problems for the W11's gearbox sensors as Bottas won the opening race.

2. Hamilton hits back in Styrian GP after wet qualifying masterclass

Hamilton has a reputation of starting seasons slower than his title rivals before hitting his stride as the year progresses. Given the compressed and shortened nature of the 2020 campaign this might have put him at a disadvantage, as a clumsy opening weekend (featuring a grid penalty for passing yellow flags after Bottas had gone off in Q3 and a post-race time penalty for tipping Alex Albon around as they fought for second at the late safety car restart) meant he entered round two in Austria 13 points behind Bottas.

PLUS: How the Styrian GP exposed the scale of Red Bull's Mercedes-mountain climb

But, after a long wait in the soaking conditions that would have meant he started sixth for F1's first Styrian GP had qualifying been cancelled, Hamilton destroyed his opposition to take his first pole of 2020 by 1.216s, and that was over Verstappen, with Bottas fourth.

In the race he produced a near-faultless drive, only losing the lead through the pitstop cycles to immediately strike back in the title chase. This year's slow start was not a long one.

Standings after Styria:

3. Bottas blows the start in Hungary

The build-up to the race at the Hungaroring will forever be remembered for Red Bull's tremendous grid repair job on Verstappen's car after the Dutchman had had that embarrassing low-speed crash on the way to the grid in damp conditions. But when the lights went out, he scampered away with a car that "feels alright", while Bottas handed Hamilton a first gift in the championship.

The Finn reacted to "a light on my dash that went off" as his steering wheel display unexpectedly changed colour, and he started forwards in his grid spot before the red lights disappeared. He came to a stop, somehow not triggering a timing loop sensor or getting a penalty, but his subsequent delayed getaway on the inters meant he was sixth at the end of the first lap.

PLUS: Why the Hungarian GP was a race to recover from embarrassing errors

Although he recovered to third, Bottas got stuck for lengthy periods behind the slower cars of Charles Leclerc and Lance Stroll, and never got the chance to get back ahead of Verstappen, which handed Hamilton another 10 points back (and the Briton got another for the fastest lap) and the 2020 championship lead for the first time.

Standings after Hungary:

4. Silverstone tyre luck goes opposite ways for Mercedes' drivers

The two races at Silverstone were very different. The first was something of a snooze-fest, enlivened tremendously by the late tyre blowouts, while the second was gripping from early on, with the rubber again playing an important part. But in both, Bottas encountered worse luck and lost significant ground in the title chase.

In the British GP, Hamilton had somewhat stunned Bottas by overturning his practice and early qualifying advantage, and the home hero had also spun in Q2, to seal a seventh Silverstone pole with big improvements in Q3. He then led every lap of the race, including the famous final tour with a blown left-front to come home in amazing, dramatic circumstances ahead of a charging Verstappen. But Bottas had suffered the same fate two laps earlier, which meant he finished out of the points in 11th and Hamilton opened a 30-point lead.

PLUS: The crucial factors that took Hamilton to the brink of disaster

The next weekend, Bottas was the faster of the two Mercedes drivers, taking pole for the 70th Anniversary GP, and was leading early on. But he finished third as Mercedes lost out in a strategic battle with Verstappen, whose Red Bull relished the softer tyres Pirelli had introduced for the second Silverstone race.

Verstappen harried Hamilton, then overtook Bottas for the lead after stopping to take off the harder tyres he had critically started the race on. Hamilton took second despite trailing his team-mate earlier and coming off second best in their opening lap scrap for the lead, as he homed in on and passed Bottas in the closing laps having run a long middle stint (briefly considering one-stopper) in a vain attempt to get on terms with the victorious Red Bull.

Standings after 70th GP:

5. Spa qualifying shows Hamilton reversing a 2019 weakness

Leaving the two British races, Hamilton's lead was still 30 points - but now over Verstappen. He increased this to 37 with a crushing win a week later in Spain, where Bottas again paid for a poor start by finishing third behind Verstappen.

But the next round at Spa demonstrated an aspect of Hamilton's 2020 season performance that he had aimed to nail after identifying something of a weakness in his sixth championship-clinching campaign last year.

In 2019, Hamilton took five poles - his lowest total since his seven in 2014, with Bottas also scoring five and Ferrari's Leclerc taking two more. This, Hamilton's tells Autosport in our 70th anniversary special issue, had "made the races so much harder for me", and was something he wanted to put right in 2020.

PLUS: The critical elements seen at Spa that will define Hamilton's F1 legacy

After the Turkish GP, he is on nine poles for the season, but his improvement was best summed up at Spa, where he took a commanding pole - the W11s showing sensational speed and turn-in grip all around the famous, and famously tough, track. An untouchable victory in the race ahead of Bottas gave him a 47-point lead leaving Belgium.

Standings after Belgium:

6. Bottas fails to make Monza progress after Hamilton's closed pitlane gaffe

The opening phase of what turned out to be a thrilling Italian GP was very familiar. Hamilton shot clear to a commanding lead, after Bottas had made yet another poor start and dropped to sixth. This error, caused by what Bottas called a "disturbance" that nearly meant he reacted before the lights had gone off, again, took him out of the lead fight immediately, and this would be crucial later on.

Hamilton lost a race that looked destined to easily be his when he failed to spot the marker boards warning the pitlane was closed after the safety car was called as Kevin Magnussen's Haas was being pushed into the pitlane entry, and Mercedes missed the FIA's timing screen notification. That meant Hamilton had to serve a 10s stop/go penalty after the red flag caused for Charles Leclerc's heavy Parabolica crash, which boosted eventual winner Pierre Gasly up the order.

PLUS: The key factors behind a Monza thriller that left the winner speechless

Hamilton charged from last after his penalty to seventh at the flag, while Bottas came home fifth - cutting just four points from Hamilton's lead. He had failed to make progress in the pack, not helped by Mercedes being tight on cooling, which meant he had to lift-and-coast significantly.

Standings after Monza:

7. Bottas 'wins' one 'race' then loses the next two at Mugello

A week after the Monza chaos, there was more drama as F1 made a first race visit to MotoGP paradise, Mugello, and again Bottas failed to capitalise on a Hamilton error. This came at what turned out to be the first of three race starts, where Hamilton twitched before the lights went out - and this time it was he who made a bad getaway, with Mercedes later telling him it "looks like a clutch issue".

Bottas therefore led the initial laps, but lost out at the second start, which followed the first red flag. This had been called after the shocking main straight multi-car pile-up at the early safety car restart, which in turn was caused by a lap one collision that eliminated Gasly and the already ailing Verstappen. When the cars took the second grid start, Hamilton shot away despite a brief brake fire as the lights came on, and edged out Bottas with a bold pass around the outside of the first corner.

PLUS: Was Bottas doomed to lose at Mugello despite 'race one' win?

He did not lose the lead thereafter, with Bottas subsequently struggling for tyre life during the middle 'normal' phase of the race that was ended by Stroll's heavy crash at the second Arrabbiata turn. In the final dash to the flag, Hamilton surged to his sixth win of the year and 55-point lead in the standings.

Standings after Mugello:

8. Bottas gifts Hamilton the chance to equal F1 history, then retires at the Nurburgring

Bottas did strike back with victory at Sochi, a track where he usually excels, while Hamilton had another scrappy weekend en route to third. He did take pole, but had cost himself the best starting tyre strategy with a slide off the track in Q2 and he then picked what he thought was a contentious penalty by completing his pre-race practice starts too far down the pit exit.

And Bottas pressed on at the next race in Germany, taking pole on what turned out to be an unexpected two-day event after the opening practice sessions were washed out. He then held the lead through a brilliant, tight-but-fair scrap in the opening corners alongside Hamilton, before gifting his team-mate the lead when he locked up and went off after leading the first 12 laps.

PLUS: What caused Bottas to gift Hamilton his F1 history moment

Bottas blamed encountering sudden drizzle first of the leaders, but any chance he had of recovering were gone when an MGU-H problem forced his retirement. Hamilton serenely went on to equal Michael Schumacher's record of 91 F1 wins.

Standings after Nurburgring:

9. Hamilton wins at Imola after stuck debris hampers Bottas

Hamilton seized the win record for himself with a commanding win in Portugal, once he'd made it back to the front after the chaotic, damp early laps where both Mercedes cars struggled, including a pass on Bottas.

But the momentum swung back to Bottas, by this stage 77 points behind, at Imola, where he took pole and looked to be the faster Mercedes driver once more. Hamilton also made another poor start and for one lap it seemed as if Bottas could take back a chunk of his deficit.

Sebastian Vettel's errant endplate put paid to that, though, as the piece of Ferrari became lodged in Bottas's floor on the second lap, costing him significant performance. He held onto the lead through the first stint, but in the second was powerless to resist the charging Verstappen, with the win already gone as Hamilton had been able to pit for the first time under the virtual safety car.

PLUS: Would Hamilton have won at Imola without VSC fortune?

Leaving Imola, the gap between the only remaining title contenders (Verstappen dropped out via his three retirements in three 2020 races in Italy) was 85.

Standings after Imola:

10. Hamilton surges to wet win in Turkey as Bottas flounders

Hamilton clinched his record-equalling crown with an amazing drive in Turkey, where Mercedes had begun the race on the back foot after struggling on the low-grip new asphalt at Istanbul throughout practice and the wet qualifying session.

They started sixth and ninth, with Hamilton ahead, but quickly gained places off the line. But that as a good as it got for Bottas as he spun avoiding the also-spinning Esteban Ocon at the first corner, and then went around a further four times as the race went on - including another lap one clash with Ocon - as he toiled to eventually finish a lapped 14th.

Hamilton raced at the back of the leading pack during the early laps on the extreme wets, but, after the leaders switched to intermediates at the end of the race's opening quarter, he gained ground steadily as the green-walled tyres slowly started to wear.

As others pitted out of his way to take fresh inters past half-distance, Hamilton was able to keep his pace up on an ageing set, passing Sergio Perez for the lead entering the race's final third with a simple DRS pass on the track's long main straight.

Hamilton was untroubled from there, winning commandingly by over 30s as he stayed out to the end, his inters wearing down to effectively slicks as threatening rain stayed away. A famous, engaging and appropriate way to seal the championship - three races early with a points advantage of 110.

Standings after Turkey: