Lewis Hamilton takes victory at the 2021 F1 Portuguese Grand Prix and extends his Championship lead to eight points

The Brit’s crucial overtakes on Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas allowed him to take victory at Portimao. The Dutchman finished in second with the Finn rounding off the podium in third.

Perez finished in a fantastic P4 as he managed to hold onto his good qualifying position. Lando Norris made his way up to fifth ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in sixth. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso finished in P7 and P8 ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in ninth and Pierre Gasly in 10th.

Starting Grid

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Mercedes locked out the front row with Valtteri Bottas ahead of Lewis Hamilton. The two Red Bull’s occupied the second row with Max Verstappen in third and Sergio Perez in fourth.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz qualified on the third row of the starting grid alongside Esteban Ocon with Lando Norris in seventh, Charles Leclerc in eighth, Pierre Gasly in ninth and Sebastian Vettel rounding off the top 10 grid starters.

George Russell agonisingly missed out on Q3 by six-hundredths as the Williams started in P11 with Antonio Giovinazzi in P12, Fernando Alonso in P13, Yuki Tsunoda in P14 and Kimi Raikkonen in P15.

Scruffy laps from McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll saw the duo start in P16 and P17 with Nicholas Latifi in P18 and the two Haas’ of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin on the back row in P19 and P20.

As It Happened

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Bottas got into turn one in the lead ahead of Hamilton and Verstappen. Sainz made his way up to fourth and ahead of Perez who dropped down to fifth.

McLaren’s Lando Norris moved into sixth ahead of Ocon with the Brit going round the outside of the Frenchman at turn 11.

Raikkonen was forced to retire from the race after he came together with his teammate Giovinazzi. Subsequently, the Safety Car was released as debris needed to be cleared up down the main straight.

On lap seven, we returned to green light racing as Bottas led the cars over the start/finish straight. Verstappen made a dazzling move on Hamilton promoting him up to second with Norris and Perez making their way ahead of Sainz with the Spaniard dropping to sixth.

Verstappen lost control of his car out of turn 14 which allowed Hamilton to close up and pass the Dutchman down the main straight.

The second Red Bull of Perez made it back up to fourth ahead of Lando Norris with the Mexican using the rapid speed of his RB16B.

Ricciardo, who started all the way down in P16, made it up to the points by lap 18 as the Australian dispatched Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel moving up to 10th.

On lap 20, we had a change of race leader as Hamilton swooped round the outside of Bottas into turn one leaving the Finn with the rapid Verstappen behind him.

After a torrid time, Russell dropped even further as his teammate Latifi made it past him and up to 18th in the process dropping the Brit down to the back of the grid.

At the halfway point: Hamilton lead away from Bottas with Verstappen in third. Then came Perez in fourth, Ricciardo in fifth, Alonso in sixth, Stroll seventh, Norris eighth and the two Ferrari’s of Sainz and Leclerc rounded out the top 10.

Red Bull were the first of the front runners to blink as they pitted in Verstappen onto the hard tyres. Bottas then followed a lap later, but after he lit the rear axle up the Finn lost out to the Dutchman as Red Bull made the gamble work and moved Verstappen up to second.

Hamilton made a pit-stop a lap later which saw Perez lead the Portuguese Grand Prix, the first time he led a race for his new team.

The two Ferrari’s switched place as Leclerc moved ahead of Sainz with the Monegasque hunting down McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Ricciardo and Alonso both made moves on Pierre Gasly with the Frenchman pushed out of the points by the latter.

Mercedes’ Hamilton made his way back into the lead on lap 51 as he hunted Perez down, who was on worn medium tyres.

It didn’t take long for Alonso to move ahead of Ricciardo with the two-time world champion up past the Aussie and into ninth.

Nikita Mazepin was awarded a five-second time penalty due to ignoring blue flags with Perez struggling to get past the Russian driver.

Sainz lost so much ground which in turn saw the Spaniard pushed out of the points after Alonso, Ricciardo and Gasly made their way ahead of the Ferrari.

Late pit-stops from Bottas and Verstappen saw the duo battle it out for the fastest lap. The Red Bull man thought he gained the extra point, but his lap time was deleted due to infringements of track limits at turn 14 which gave the Finn the solitary point for the fastest time he did a lap prior.

Hamilton was able to cruise to victory after the two behind him stopped with Verstappen finishing ahead of Bottas and Perez finishing in P4 for Red Bull.