Hamilton overtakes Verstappen and Bottas to win

This was Hamilton’s position of command as it approached the target. Verstappen and Bottas stopped for an extra stop to chase the fastest lap bonus point that widened its gap with the checkered flag.

To start, Bottas was best to jump from the front row, and the polesitter then sped into the fast right turn 1 to build on his advantage as Verstappen had half a glimpse of overtaking the Hamilton before retreating.

Behind the leaders, Sergio Perez lost fourth place with a slow escape route that allowed Carlos Sainz Jr. to jump up to fifth on his way to Turn 1. Esteban Ocon and Lando Norris fought for sixth place on lap one – the McLaren muscled on the outside run through Turn 11.

Bottas’ lead at the end of the first lap of 66 was 0.8 seconds but that was soon erased when the safety car was called to allow the Portimao Marshals to clear debris from Kimi Raikkonen, who was with his teammate Antonio Giovinazzi from Alfa Romeo collided as they started lap two.

The collision that brought Raikkonen closer to Giovinazzi broke the 2007 World Champion’s front wing, which jammed under his car and meant he ran straight into the gravel at Turn 1, where he retreated.

Kimi Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo Racing C41 with a damaged front wing

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

The race continued at the start of lap seven – the pack was brought through the pit lane under the suspension twice as the main straight was cleared – and Bottas waited until he reached the starting hatches before roaring up to speed again, which Hamilton caught.

Verstappen was therefore able to get close to the world champion and overtake him with an exciting move outside of Turn 1 before chasing Bottas.

On the next few tours it looked like Hamilton would have trouble staying in the lead, but Verstappen, slipping out of the penultimate corner on lap 10, gave the Mercedes driver a chance to attack when the Red Bull DRS beat Bottas lost.

Hamilton attacked at the first opportunity, shooting the inside line with DRS at Turn 1 to seal the move before Verstappen attacked on the outside of the narrowing right of Turn 3, where Hamilton chased him out and out of the road Bottas after.

For the remainder of the opening third of the race, Bottas and Hamilton were slightly ahead of Verstappen, but he stayed determinedly in the game as they all worked to keep their mid-range tires in shape.

After a cage-like time in which Bottas was at the top and regularly lapped the leaders in the middle to high 1:22 laps, Hamilton won significantly on the main straight at the end of the 19th lap, and attacked with DRS at the beginning of the next lap he’s on for the guide.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12, fights with Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes W12

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Bottas was defending the inside line, but Hamilton swept around the outside line to take the lead for the first time and quickly rushed out of DRS range in front of his teammate.

As the race neared halfway, Hamilton had increased his lead by over three seconds. Verstappen stayed within the DRS range of Bottas but couldn’t get close enough to start a movement lap after lap.

Just as Verstappen was eliminated from the DRS threat, Red Bull called him to take hard tires at the end of the 35th lap – the Dutchman blocked both front tires and approached the speed limit line.

Mercedes brought Bottas by the following time, where a stop that lasted a second longer than Verstappens – 3.3 versus 2.3 seconds – meant the Red Bull was able to close the first corners after Bottas re-entry survive.

The Mercedes driver lost momentum when cold tires came out of Turn 3, which gave Verstappen the opportunity to plunge into warmer rubber. He attacked from Turn 4 and took second place in Bottas’ interior at the hairpin.

Up front, Hamilton crossed the finish line on the final lap 37 and got tough too – albeit a slightly used set compared to the brand new ones on Verstappen’s car.

Sparks fly as Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB16B, battles Lando Norris, McLaren MCL35M

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

After the pit stop sequence was shattered, Hamilton was 3.2 seconds ahead of Verstappen, who initially began to take advantage of that advantage before falling back over the next few laps as Hamilton recorded a number of the fastest laps.

Hamilton’s lead was never threatened from there, although he still had to make a pass for the lead – a slight DRS overtaking on the main straight to get past Perez, who came through a very long opening stint that the second Red Bull didn’t get until the end the 51st round and got softs.

Hamilton’s margin of victory was 29.1 seconds on the flag, with Verstappen initially only holding Bottas in check during the first laps of the second stint, as the Finn had done the other way around towards the end of the first half of the race.

The gap between the two then widened when Bottas spent two laps before the last 10 tours and each time lost two seconds to Verstappen because an exhaust gas temperature sensor briefly robbed him of top speed.

With Bottas far enough ahead of Perez, who had set the fastest lap on his softs, Mercedes brought in their second car with three laps left to try to sneak back the bonus point.

Bottas achieved that with 1: 19.865 minutes, but only because Verstappen’s 1: 19.849 minutes was canceled because he ran too far out of the penultimate corner on the last lap.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12, overtakes Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Behind the top three was Perez, who had run behind Norris after the restart after the Sainz pair shuffled back.

The Red Bull then soon leveraged their tempo advantage to regain fourth place, and Perez began his long ride to extend the life of the media he had started with.

With Perez, Norris stopped Ferrari’s attempt to undercut at the pit stops – where he and Sainz Softs traded for media – and the Brit kept the softer rubber alive much better than his former teammate.

Sainz fell back to 11th place on the flag, with the drivers initially using hard tires at their stops and reaching the fastest pace as the race progressed.

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Norris did not face this problem when he came home fifth ahead of Charles Leclerc, the first rider to start Sainz’s crash shortly after halfway.

Ocon finished seventh ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso, who the longer the race went, made remarkable progress and enjoyed his time on the hard rubber to the finish.

Daniel Ricciardo rose brilliantly on the starting grid from P16 in the early stages, made up several positions on the opening laps and then carried out a long first stint which meant he was attacked late despite being overtaken by Alonso when the Alpine speed was superior.

Pierre Gasly rounded off the top 10 ahead of Sainz.

F1 Portuguese Grand Prix Results