Huge F1 Crashes See Only 12 Of The 20 Cars Finish The Tuscan Grand Prix

The Inaugural Grand Prix at Mugello wasn't without its fair share of drama.

It was another great day for Lewis Hamilton who secured his 90th Formula One win - moving him to within one victory from Michael Schumacher's all-time record.

As for the rest of the pack, a number of scary crashes meant that only 12 of the 20 cars actually finished the race.

It all kicked off early on when Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly crashed out on turn two of the very first lap following a collision with Kimi Raikkonen.

The pair was forced to retire early, but they certainly weren't the last drivers to call it quits in Tuscany.

And it was Hamilton's Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas who was in the thick of the chaos - although he somehow escaped unscathed.

With the safety car deployed from a pervious incident, Bottas decided the time was right to get some heat into his tyres.

Swerving in and out to warm up his new tyres, the Finnish star was going far too slow as he approached the starting grid.

And as the safety car finally peeled off from his tail, the drivers behind him accelerated to resume the race from the rolling position.

But it was too little too late for Bottas.

He was going far too slow and the drivers behind him were forced to hit the brakes hard to avoid smashing into the back of him.

But while some thankfully avoided a huge pile-up, the same couldn't be said for Carlos Sainz who rear-ended the cars in front of him at rapid speeds.

"Oh my God, that was dangerous," Sainz said over McLaren's team radio after the incident.

"I'm okay and it looks like everyone is okay and that's the main thing because the crash was properly scary," he added after the race.

"We were doing 290, 300kph at that point, it was probably everyone in front of me just thought that we were racing.

"Suddenly it looks like we were not racing anymore and everyone started braking again and by the time I saw everything it was too late and it was a big crash.

"It felt like at the back of the grid where I was, it felt like everyone in front of me thought the race was going and we were all flat out until someone realised the race was not on.

"Something definitely to look into the because the speeds we are going on on the main straight are very big. The crash I had could have been much worse if one of the cars was sideways on the main straight and I just took him (out).

"It's something to learn from here because it is not a nice feeling to do 280 km per hour and find three cars in the middle of the straight completely stop."

It turns out Sainz had hit Kevin Magnussen from Haas, Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi and Williams' Nicholas Latifi.

The crash resulted in aall four drivers retiring from the race.

And, understandably, not everyone was best pleased.

"That was f****** stupid from whoever was at the front," Magnussen's Haas teammate Romain Grosjean said.

"Do they want to kill us or what? This is the worst thing I've seen, ever."

The race was ultimately red-flagged but the chaos was far from over with Lance Stroll forced to bow out early following another frightening incident.

Topics: Formula One, Motorsport news, Motorsport, Lewis Hamilton, F1, Australia

Max Sherry

Max Sherry is a journalist for SPORTbible Australia. After migrating Down Under from London as a teenager, he instantly fell in love with Aussie sport and its culture. From NRL to AFL, cricket to rugby — you name it, Max watches it (with a beer in hand, of course). During his time at Fox Sports, he worked in the football department covering the Premier League, A-League, Socceroos and Matildas. Born a stone's throw away from West Ham's training ground, Max is obviously a die-hard Liverpool fan.

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