Hamilton wins the Portuguese Grand Prix and extends its lead in the World Cup

From the pole position, Valtteri Bottas got off to a good start and led by Lewis Hamilton and Max VerstappenWith Carlos Sainz Jr. from Scuderia Ferrari jump past Sergio Perez for the fourth. Behind them, McLaren F1 Team‘s Lando Norris and Esteban Ocon from the Alpine F1 team, fought a big battle for sixth place and repeatedly swapped positions on the first lap, with Norris eventually halting his movements and taking the position.

Kimi Raikkonen lost his front wing and had to park his car on an escape road at the end of the first lap after a rookie mistake by the veteran, miscalculating his overtaking speed and slipping straight into his left rear wheel Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN Teammate Antonio Giovinazziand just covered the house in ruins. This required a safety car intervention, which led the drivers through the pit lane to clear the debris. This continued the three-lap series of the safety car that came out on the first lap of the race.

At the restart, Bottas supported the pack on the home stretch and surprised his teammate with his timing, which enabled Verstappen to run into Hamilton and secure second place in Turn One. Sainz dropped to sixth when Norris passed Pérez on Turn 5 and jumped to fourth.

The top three then separated significantly from the rest of the field, and Verstappen was getting closer to the front runner Bottas when DRS was activated on lap ten. But a sudden mistake due to gusts of wind from Verstappen at Turn 14 allowed Hamilton to run at Turn 1 on the following lap, and Hamilton overtook him again, pushing the Dutchman far at Turn 3 when Verstappen tried to respond similarly to Verstappen at the start the last lap. Verstappen fell back two seconds before regrouping and catching up.

Pérez overtook Norris in fourth on lap 15 when Hamilton chased Bottas to the top. After chasing him for five laps, Hamilton got a DRS-assisted run against his teammate and made a bold pass to Bottas on lap 1 in lap 1 to take the lead. Hamilton then built a lead of 3.5 seconds at halftime of the race.

Sainz was the first of the top six to pit, like Norris, who started on the soft tire and switched to media. Norris pitted a lap later and was immediately attacked by his former teammate after a relatively slow stop – but managed to fend him off. Ferrari then came into the pits Charles Leclerc switch from the fifth to the hard tire.

Verstappen pitted on lap 36 because of hard tires to undercut Bottas, who pitted a lap later to protect himself from him. Bottas slipped far out of turn three and Verstappen passed him on turn five. Hamilton also came into the pits and kept a lead of 3 seconds over Verstappen, with Bottas falling another three seconds behind Verstappen.

Perez stayed outside and ran on his media for much longer. He held the lead even though he reported vibrations in his tires – and almost came into conflict with a stubborn one Nikita Mazepin of Uralkali Haas F1 Teamwho, despite five separate blue flag calls, refused to be lapped by the leader. Mazepin eventually let the Mexican through after his sixth blue flag and later received a five-second penalty for his unsportsmanlike conduct.

Hamilton overtook Pérez on the track to regain the lead just before Checo stopped on lap 52 on soft tires and came back fourth in search of the fastest lap. From there, Hamilton drove to victory, far from Verstappen, Bottas – who was later hampered by a problem with the exhaust gas sensor – and the distant Pérez behind them.

Bottas made a late pit stop for fresh tires and drove the fastest lap away from Perez, but Verstappen also pitted and opted for softs and took it back on the final lap – until she was removed at Turn 14 for exceeding the track limits, extra point went to Bottas.

Norris was fifth ahead of Leclerc. The Ferraris switched positions on lap 39 and Sainz lost another place to Ocon with 21 laps remaining. Fernando Alonso enjoyed a good race too, passing McLaren Daniel Ricciardo and Sainz take eighth place in the closing stages. Ricciardo finished ninth in front of the Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda of Pierre GaslyBoth passed Sainz and the Spaniard hobbled home in eleventh place after an extremely long run on his medium tires.