Hamilton Wins In Portugal Following Brilliant Passes

Calum Gill 17:43 02/05/2021

Lewis Hamilton took his second win of 2021 in Portugal after two brilliant overtakes to get by Valtteri Bottas & Max Verstappen.

Mercedes driver Hamilton had slipped back to third from second on the grid following the safety car restart for the stricken Alfa-Romeo of Kimi Raikkonen, after the Finn collided with his teammate Antonio Giovinazzi on the front straight on lap 2.

Verstappen passed Hamilton at turn 1 around the outside on the restart before the Briton regained position on lap 11 at the same corner, as a result of Red Bull's Verstappen having a slide on the exit of turn 14 on lap 10. Hamilton then closed up to teammate Bottas before beautifully sweeping around the outside at turn 1.

In the closing laps, Bottas and both of the Red Bulls came in to the pits to put on the softs for a fastest lap. Sergio Perez initially claimed it before Bottas bettered it on lap 65. Verstappen thought he had gone quicker but his final lap attempt, which was quicker, was deleted for track limits at turn 14.

-Full weekend results

Hamilton delivers in the Algarve

Starting second, both Bottas and Hamilton had equal starts to maintain position at the end of lap 1. It looked like them and Verstappen would charge off into the distance, but that was halted when the Alfa-Romeo's came to blows on the straight.

Raikkonen was caught out in the slipstream of his teammate, and ended up driving into the back of Giovinazzi, taking off half of his front wing, with the other half getting jammed underneath the left front tyre. This saw the 2007 world champion be the only retirement of the race.

Upon the restart, Bottas backed up the pack, before stepping on the throttle just as the front of the pack rose up over the crest before the grid slots. He caught out 7-time-champion Hamilton, who subsequently lost his second position to Verstappen at the first corner.

A few laps later though, Verstappen had a wobble on the exit of turn 14, allowing Hamilton to close back up on the run down to turn 1. Hamilton used the slipstream and the DRS to get past the Dutchman down the inside of the first corner.

And then, on the 20th lap, Hamilton made his move for the lead. Bottas went defensive, taking the inside line into the first turn. But Hamilton swept around the outside of the Finn, and from there on in, his 97th win never looked in jeopardy. He was always in control, as the focus turned to the fight for second between Bottas and Verstappen.

The decisive moments in this battle came around the pit stops. Red Bull brought Verstappen in first on lap 35, with Bottas following him in a lap later.

The Mercedes retained the lead, but Verstappen was close behind the Finn as he came out of the pits, and Bottas' fate was sealed when he had huge slide on the exit of Turn Three. Verstappen closed right up and passed into the hairpin at Turn Five. Bottas dropped three seconds back from the Red Bull before coming back for a few laps, but then fell away again as the top three positions were sealed. 

The rest of the pack

Sergio Perez took fourth for Red Bull, ahead of McLaren's Lando Norris and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who moved up from his disappointing eighth place on the grid partly thanks to his ability to start on the medium tyre because he was fast enough to make it through second qualifying on it.

That put him in a stronger strategic position than team-mate Carlos Sainz, who started fifth on the softs, and after their pit stops, Leclerc closed up to Sainz, who was ordered to let his team-mate by. Sainz, who had switched from softs to mediums, then fell back into the clutches of the Alpines of first Esteban Ocon, who qualified a superb sixth, and then Fernando Alonso, who had a disappointing qualifying performance in 13th but drove an excellent race with a long first stint on the medium tyre.

Alonso passed Daniel Ricciardo's McLaren shortly after they had stopped within a lap of each other, and then dispatched Sainz before closing in on Ocon in the final laps, finishing just a second behind after starting seven places behind him. Ricciardo also passed Sainz in the closing laps to take ninth, a decent result after qualifying 16th as the Ferrari dropped back to take the final point.

Sebastian Vettel & George Russell fell back after qualifying 10th & 11th respectively, with Aston Martin's Vettel finishing 13th and Williams' Russell coming home 17th.

2021 Portuguese Grand Prix Full Classification.