Formula One racing champion Lewis Hamilton won the Styrian Grand Prix in Spielberg, Austria on Sunday, his first victory of the season after the sport resumed earlier this month amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mercedes driver Hamilton finished ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas by 13 seconds. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen finished third.
Hamilton who started from pole position held the lead and secured his 85th career win. This was also Hamilton’s 51st victory from pole position. The Briton is only six wins short of equalling F1 great Michael Schumacher’s record of 91 victories.
After his podium finish, Hamilton, who is F1’s only Black driver, celebrated his win by raising his right fist in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, a week after kneeling before the season opening Austrian GP with other drivers.
“It’s great to be back out here and to be driving and driving with this kind of performance. The team did a fantastic job with the strategy and it was just up to me to keep it together, keep off the kerbs and bring it home,” Hamilton was quoted as saying by Formula One’s official website.
The Styrian GP was held at the same track—the Red Bull Ring—as that of the Austrian GP after Formula One made changes to the calendar because of the pandemic. The race was held without spectators.
The Ferraris failed to finish the race for the second time in four races, after Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc collided in the first lap. The damage to his car forced Vettel out of the race and Leclerc pulled out in the fourth lap.
Hamilton has recently been vocal about his support to anti-racism campaigns, sporting ‘Black Live Matter’ on his helmet and wearing a t-shirt with the same message last week at the Austrian GP.
The 35-year-old also posted a picture of himself with the raised fist after his victory on Instagram, with a lengthy caption, stating, “We stand together and fight.”
“…The team today took the knee which was just amazing to see that together we can learn, be open minded and conscious of what’s going on in the world. Today we won but we have a long way to go. Thank you so much to everyone in my team, here at the track and back at the factory. I hope you are proud of what we are standing for and achieving together. A huge thanks to all of you #TeamLH, I appreciate all of your support and your positive messages, you’ve really kept me going,” he wrote on Instagram photo.
