Portuguese GP: Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas ensure Mercedes one-two at Portimao

Lewis Hamilton held off a spirited challenge from Max Verstappen to win the Portuguese Grand Prix on Sunday (May 2). Hamilton’s win means he now leads Verstappen in the Formula 1 world driver’s championship by 8 points. It was an interesting Portuguese GP for Hamilton. He started in second but was overtaken early by Verstappen. However, he duly took back that place and then targetted teammate Bottas. Eventually he managed to overtake the Finn and take a lead that he would not relenquish. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez completed the top four, although it was another sub-par outing for the Mexican driver in his new team.

McLaren’s Lando Norris finished fifth, rounding off another strong showing for the young Brit. Charles Leclerc finished sixth for Ferrari, with the Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso finishing seventh and eighth, respectively. Daniel Ricciardo, starting the race at 16th, did well to finish 9th and within the points. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly rounded off the top 10.

Hamilton shows class

The Portuguese GP started with Bottas comfortably holding his own in front. However, an incident that saw Kimi Raikkonen retire led to the deployment of the safety car on Lap 2 itself.

Racing resumed on lap 7 and Verstappen pulled off an amazing maneuver to overtake Hamilton. However, the top 3 had time gaps of a few hundredths of a second between them. Verstappen made a mistake with oversteer and that eventually led Hamilton to catch up with and overtake him.

By then, Hamilton had settled into his zone and come to grips with the track. He and Bottas pulled away from Verstappen and then subsequently got the go-ahead to race.

Hamilton eventually found his way past Bottas, getting ahead of him from outside the turn one corner. He then took advantage of being in front and put out a few fastest laps.

The three of them eventually pitted and Hamilton came out second, ahead of Verstappen at third. Perez led the race but only on virtue of not pitting till that point.

Hamilton eventually overtook him and when he did, he kept the lead. Verstappen pitted late to get fresh tires and have a go at the fastest lap, which would grant him an extra point.

However, his lap was deleted for a breach of track limits and Bottas took home the extra point.