Hamilton the hunted again – five things we learned from the F1 Portuguese GP

Ewan Gale

Monday, May 3, 2021, 10:52 a.m. – Updated: 10:52 a.m.

A Portuguese Grand Prix weekend full of intrigue and even more controversy opened the F1 battle for the title straight away.

Lewis Hamilton celebrated his 97th career victory when Max Verstappen had to be satisfied with second place, while in midfield the perceived running order changed again.

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Let’s go straight to the five things we learned in Portimão.

Hamilton returns to be hunted

So much has been done that Hamilton and Mercedes are chasing Red Bull and Verstappen this year, with the latter being even cited as favorites.

However, after the first three races and the points table, Hamilton and Mercedes still have the upper hand.

In Portugal, despite his early drop from second place, the seven-time champion looked back on his untouchable best as he passed both Verstappen and his team-mate Valtteri Bottas and took the lead.

His pressure on Verstappen in turn three was a clear warning to his rivals that he will not tolerate the tough move in turn one at Imola, a comeuppance for the Dutchman.

While the 29-second lead was distorted by Verstappen’s fastest lap attempt, the gap before Red Bull’s bullstop was still five seconds from the finish. Red Bull will need a little revitalization in Spain this week.

Ferrari’s strategy faltered when McLaren got the upper hand

How many times will we sit here and write about how Ferrari’s strategy cost the team valuable points?

After qualifying five, Carlos Sainz dropped to eleventh at the end of the race after being stranded on a set of medium-weight tires for most of the race due to a terrible strategy call.

While Charles Leclerc scored points in sixth place, he was unable to make any significant progress after also struggling with the media.

After McLaren took the best place again and Daniel Ricciardo recovered from 16th place on the grid, the race for third place in the championship got the Woking-based team going early.

Alpine best-of-class A team

In the second midfield of AlphaTauri, Alpine, Aston Martin and Alfa Romeo, the French team was the best under difficult conditions in Portugal.

Esteban Ocon looked fast all weekend and had fully earned his seventh place, while Fernando Alonso rolled back the years as he fought his way from 13th on the grid to eighth.

In contrast, AlphaTauri will again feel like points have been lost after failing to get the most out of a significantly fast race car, while Aston Martin and Alfa Romeo left no impression on the top 10.

Encouragement for everyone will come from the flip-flop nature of the pecking order in the first three races.

Schumacher the unsung hero of the weekend

It doesn’t take another Adrian Newey to find out this year’s Haas is hard to drive. Numerous spins for Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin this season have highlighted the shortcomings of the VF-21 in broad daylight.

But in Portimão Schumacher showed a somewhat virtuoso performance. The German made few, if at all, mistakes over the weekend and was significantly faster than his Russian team-mate.

At the end of the race, he was even able to pressure Williams’ Nicholas Latifi to finish ahead of the Canadian.

Schumacher was always optimistic about his chances of mixing it up with the lower end of the grid while his ambition was denied with the knowledge of Haas’ lack of development.

Perhaps there is pace to be found from his performance over the weekend.

Track limits dominate the topics of conversation AGAIN!

When Christian Horner wakes up and checks his daily routine, the dispute over the track boundaries will lie somewhere between the race and dinner.

Sergio Perez believed he was overtaken by Lando Norris outside the racetrack and lost a lot of time behind the McLaren, while Verstappen lost his fastest lap bonus point for long run at Turn 14.

Only Esteban Ocon managed to survive the three training units without exceeding the limits, as corners were again placed on the watch list after the beginning of the weekend and different limits were set at different points.

How long will it take before a single, defined route limit is consistently set for the route? If there was any common sense, it will be at the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend.