Your votes have placed the 2020 Italian Grand Prix as the best race of the 2020 season, with the Sakhir and Austrian Grands Prix ranking as runners-up.
The 2020 Italian Grand Prix – in which Pierre Gasly took an astonishing maiden victory – has been voted the best race of the 2020 season by Lights Out readers. The Italian Grand Prix also ranked as the second best race since our post-race rankings began at the start of the 2016 season. It is beaten only by the 2019 German Grand Prix, which 90% of voters voted as ‘great’. The Italian Grand Prix is one of three 2020 races, along with the Sakhir and Austrian Grands Prix, to land in the top ten on our all time list.
While there have been plenty of highs in 2020, there have also been lows. The Abu Dhabi, Russian, Belgian and Spanish Grands Prix were voted as four of the five worst races since our polls began. The only race voted worse than those four in the past four years is the 2019 French Grand Prix.
The coronavirus pandemic brought about plenty of changes to the 2020 calendar, with new and returning venues stepping in to host rounds of the championship. Aside from the Sakhir Grand Prix, which was held on the Outer Circuit layout of Bahrain International Circuit, the Turkish Grand Prix was voted best of the one-off races, with Lewis Hamilton’s title-winning Istanbul Park performance ranking as the fourth best race of the year. It was followed by the races at the Algarve International Circuit and Mugello, which were voted as the fifth and seventh best races of the season respectively. The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, held at Imola, ranked worst of the returning venues, failing to reach the top ten.
This is the first time that a Grand Prix at Monza has won the Grand Prix of the Year accolade. Max Verstappen’s maiden win at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix won the title in Lights Out’s inaugural year, Daniel Ricciardo’s win in a frantic Azerbaijan Grand Prix was voted the best race of 2017, while Sebastian Vettel’s Silverstone win at the British Grand Prix won the accolade in 2018. Last year, the German Grand Prix, which was held in wet conditions, was voted the best of the year. The Hockenheim race remains the most universally liked race of the 100 races ranked by Lights Out readers so far. You can find the full list of race rankings here. The full result of the 2020 Grand Prix of the Year polls can be seen below:
| PLACE | RACE | % GREAT | % GOOD | % AVERAGE | % BAD | VOTES |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ITALY | 84.5% | 12.5% | 1.2% | 1.8% | 567 |
| 2 | SAKHIR | 73.8% | 19% | 1.9% | 5.2% | 363 |
| 3 | AUSTRIA | 72.5% | 21.2% | 2.6% | 3.6% | 717 |
| 4 | TURKEY | 69.2% | 23.6% | 5.1% | 2.1% | 487 |
| 5 | TUSCANY | 39.7% | 44.3% | 11.2% | 4.8% | 481 |
| 6 | 70th ANNIVERSARY | 31.5% | 46.9% | 18.5% | 3.1% | 426 |
| 7 | PORTUGAL | 20.8% | 51.4% | 24.3% | 3.5% | 428 |
| 8 | BRITAIN | 19.8% | 38.7% | 28.6% | 12.7% | 612 |
| 9 | EIFEL | 18.9% | 60.7% | 16.3% | 4.1% | 270 |
| 10 | BAHRAIN | 14.5% | 39.8% | 28.3% | 17.3% | 392 |
| 11 | EMILIA ROMAGNA | 12.4% | 50.7% | 29.4% | 7.5% | 412 |
| 12 | HUNGARY | 10.5% | 29% | 43.3% | 17.1% | 496 |
| 13 | STYRIA | 10.2% | 46.8% | 35% | 7.9% | 605 |
| 14 | ABU DHABI | 3.5% | 6.7% | 26.2% | 63.7% | 344 |
| 15 | RUSSIA | 3.1% | 17.4% | 54.8% | 24.6% | 321 |
| 16 | BELGIUM | 3.1% | 12.7% | 42.9% | 41.2% | 573 |
| 17 | SPAIN | 3.1% | 8.2% | 38.9% | 49.9% | 453 |
After graduating in 2015 with a First Class honours degree in English Language and Literature, Nicky Haldenby, a lifelong fan of Formula 1, founded the Lights Out F1 Blog in 2016. The blog has become a firm fan-favourite, delving deep into the sport’s history books and lifting the cover on unusual F1 statistics.
Nicky also writes at F1Destinations and Motorsport Guides and can be heard as the resident stats man on the 2 Soft Compounds Podcast. His work has appeared on WTF1, BadgerGP, motorsport.com, Sky Sports F1 and BBC Radio 5 Live. Nicky is also the host of the F1 Rewind Podcast.
