#PortugueseGP Report: @LewisHamilton dominates to record-breaking 92nd-career victory. #F1

Lewis Hamilton surpassed the record for most victories in Formula 1 by cruising to his 92^nd career victory at the Portuguese GP by 25.592 seconds over Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

 

 

As light rain fell on the opening lap, pole-sitter Hamilton slipped off the track and fell-behind team-mate Bottas, but was able to recover to claim his eighth victory of the season at the Portuguese GP and claimed the outright record for most wins in the sport (92), with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen rounding out the podium after colliding with Racing Point’s Sergio Perez on chaotic lap one.

 

When the 66 lap Portuguese Grand Prix began, Hamilton held the lead off the line as Bottas made a slow run on the right-hand side of the grid, on the dirty side, which meant he dropped behind Verstappen’s RB16 into the first corner.

 

But the Dutchman ran slightly wide on the exit, which allowed Bottas to push through to the inside and wrestle his way into second place in the tight turn three right-hander.

 

Verstappen ran wide on the exit that he lost momentum and Perez came alongside the Red Bull, with the duo making contact through the turn four kink, which spun the Mercedes-powered RP20 around and fell to last – in a collision that the stewards deemed no action was required.

 

Meanwhile in front, Hamilton suffered a lock-up into turn five and slid, which with Bottas able to snatch the lead from the Briton as they ran up the hill into the middle sector, where both F1 W11 EQ Power+ racers were struggling to get heat in their medium compounds as drops of rain started to fall and got overtaken by McLaren’s Carlos Sainz.

 

The Spaniard started seventh on the grid, using the softer tyre’s extra grip to his advantage and capitalised on the Verstappen/Perez incident before charging into the lead, with McLaren team-mate Lando Norris following suit and making his way up to fourth place at the end of the opening lap.

 

Sainz’s lead was at one second at the end of the first tour as he continued to pull clear from the Mercedes pairing, little-by-little, over the next three laps.

 

By the fifth lap the Mercedes drivers got their mediums up to temperature and rapidly hauled Sainz back in, with Bottas reclaiming the lead at the start of lap six around the outside into the first corner.

 

Hamilton did the same a lap later, with Sainz at this stage starting to lose grip with his softer tyres.

 

Verstappen recovered from his opening lap tangle to pass Norris and then followed the Mercedes duo back by overtaking Sainz by the start of the eighth tour, having posted the fastest lap as he began his surge.

 

By this stage, Verstappen, also running the softs, was 4.4 seconds off the lead and was unable to show any rapid pace, quickly fading away.

 

Bottas appeared to have kept team-mate Hamilton at bay, with the latter complaining about his front-left, the tyre that suffers the most pressure around the Autodromo Internacional Do Algarve, as they lapped in the medium 1:21’s, while the rest of the field lapped in the 1:22’s.

 

But Hamilton, posting a string of fastest laps between lap 15 and 17 pulled him back close to his team-mate, and two laps later was right behind the Finn, getting back into the lead with DRS assistance at the beginning of the 20^th tour.

 

Bottas drove into the dirty inside, close to the pit-wall, but did not disrupt Hamilton’s run and easily claimed first place as he swept into the first corner.

 

Hamilton rapidly moved clear from Bottas, building his gap to three seconds by the start of lap 23, with Verstappen out of range to pose any challenge to the Mercedes drivers.

 

Verstappen then pitted to take the set of mediums, re-joining in sixth to put on the harder compounds, having had Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc start to reel in on his third place.

 

In the middle third of the Grand Prix, Hamilton was running consistently in the 1:20’s, with Bottas unable to get into those times until the 34^th tour – by which Hamilton was eight seconds ahead – with the Finn reporting to his team that a warning light appeared on his dash to cool his F1 W11 EQ Power+ racer.

 

Mercedes instructed Hamilton to extend his initial stint on the medium rubber, which the Briton did until the 40^th lap with his lead close to 10 seconds, when he stopped for harder tyres – despite saying he could go longer.

 

Hamilton was told he “cleared the field” and pitted, reclaiming first place when Bottas had come in a tour later – with the other Mercedes also given harder tyres despite Bottas wanting to do the opposite of his team-mate by running the softer compounds.

 

At the exit of the pits, which feeds right into the first corner, Bottas had to slow due to fast-approaching Alfa Romeo of Kimi Raikkonen and Williams Racing’s George Russell, which costed him time and lost more ground coming out of the turn five hairpin as the Finn struggled for grip and tyre temperatures.

 

Bottas’s problems meant Hamilton’s gap was increased to over 11 seconds, and a string of fast lap times in the low 1:20’s took the six-time World Champion’s lead to almost 15 seconds.

 

The Briton continued to pull clear, with Bottas finally able to match Hamilton as they swapped fastest laps on the 47^th lap.

 

Hamilton then increased his lead further, despite reporting a cramp in his right calf during the latter stages of the race, taking the fastest lap in the 1:18’s near the end, as he clinched the Portuguese GP victory by 25.592 seconds.

 

Verstappen momentarily looked under pressure from Leclerc when the Ferrari driver pitted on the 35^th tour, but the Monegasque-youngster could not compete with the Dutchman whilst running the harder compounds and the nine second gap between the duo became a whopping 30.8 seconds by the end.

 

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, who kept his soft tyres alive in the early stages of the Grand Prix as the McLaren drivers faded from their high positions – came home fifth – beating the recovering Racing Point of Perez in the closing laps.

 

Perez completed a long second stint on the mediums after pitting at the end of the opening tour following his tangle with Verstappen, but the red side-walled soft tyres he took on a third and final stint to the chequered flag ran out of grip and he was passed by the Frenchman when the race leaders were on the 64^th lap, a tour later after the Mexican defended late into the first corner in a move that was investigated by the race stewards.

 

Sainz was able to relegate Perez to seventh a lap later after Gasly moved up into fifth around the outside into turn one, with Renault F1 Team pairing Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo taking eighth and ninth places, respectively.

 

Ocon ran up to the 53^rd lap on the mediums, which he started the Grand Prix on, with Ricciardo battling Gasly in the middle-point of the race before falling back and ending in-front of his team-mate when he finally stopped.

 

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel started 15^th and came home in tenth place, taking the final point on offer.

 

Alfa Romeo Racing’s Raikkonen finished outside the top ten in 11^th place and ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Alexander Albon who was 12^th and McLaren’s Norris who ended the race in 13^th, with the latter having fallen down the pack after a collision with Racing Point’s Lance Stroll, when the Canadian tried a risky move around the far outside into the first corner during the early stages.

 

The pairing collided as Stroll turned in on the McLaren, for which he was hit with a five-second time penalty for causing the collision, later receiving the same time penalty for exceeding track limits repeatedly before retiring later on due to damaged he sustained in the incident and high-speed spin.

 

Williams Racing’s Russell was 14^th and in-front of Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi who took 15^th and Haas F1 Team pairing Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean who were 16^th and 17^th respectively.

 

The other FW43 Williams of Nicholas Latifi and AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat brought up the rear and two laps down from the lead.

---

The Top Three

 

 

Winner – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W11 EQ Power+: “Today was tough, it was all about temperature today and it was something I was able to do with the set up I created. I could only have ever dreamed about where I would be today. I’m proud to make the most of it every single day.”

 

2^nd Place – Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W11 EQ Power+: “The opening lap was pretty good, I was pleased to get the lead. After that I had no pace today, I don’t understand why. No pace. I tried to defend but there was nothing really to do.”

 

3^rd Place – Max Verstappen, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16: “It was very low grip, I tried to stay out of trouble. It was raining a little bit and just tried to keep the car on track and did my own race. Overall, I think we finished where we deserved.”

 

---

 

Formula 1 Heineken Grande Premio De Portugal 2020 Race Results Classification (66 Laps)

 

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	TIME/RETIRED	PTS
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	66	1:29:56.828	26
2	77	Valtteri Bottas	MERCEDES	66	+25.592s	18
3	33	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA	66	+34.508s	15
4	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	66	+65.312s	12
5	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPHATAURI HONDA	65	+1 lap	10
6	55	Carlos Sainz	MCLAREN RENAULT	65	+1 lap	8
7	11	Sergio Perez	RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES	65	+1 lap	6
8	31	Esteban Ocon	RENAULT	65	+1 lap	4
9	3	Daniel Ricciardo	RENAULT	65	+1 lap	2
10	5	Sebastian Vettel	FERRARI	65	+1 lap	1
11	7	Kimi Räikkönen	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	65	+1 lap	0
12	23	Alexander Albon	RED BULL RACING HONDA	65	+1 lap	0
13	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN RENAULT	65	+1 lap	0
14	63	George Russell	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	65	+1 lap	0
15	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	65	+1 lap	0
16	20	Kevin Magnussen	HAAS FERRARI	65	+1 lap	0
17	8	Romain Grosjean	HAAS FERRARI	65	+1 lap	0
18	6	Nicholas Latifi	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	64	+2 laps	0
19	26	Daniil Kvyat	ALPHATAURI HONDA	64	+2 laps	0
NC	18	Lance Stroll	RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES	51	DNF	0

* Provisional results. Note – Hamilton scored an additional point for setting the fastest lap of the race. Grosjean received a 5-second time penalty for exceeding track limits.

https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2020/races/1056/portugal.html

 

Click here for the 2020 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings.

 

Round 13 of the 2020 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in San Marino for the Formula 1 Emirates Gran Premio Dell’Emilia Romagna 2020 from Saturday October 31-Sunday November 1.

---

#PortugueseGP Qualifying Report: @LewisHamilton pips @ValtteriBottas to pole. #F1

@ValtteriBottas leads @MercedesAMG one-two in #PortugueseGP FP1. #F1

@RGrosjean and @KevinMagnussen part ways with @HaasF1Team at the end of 2020. #F1

#Formula1 Heineken #PortugueseGP 2020 Preview. #F1