Lewis Hamilton recovered from a poor early restart to claim Formula 1 win No.97 at the Portuguese Grand Prix.
The Briton was overtaken by Max Verstappen in the early stages but soon hit back to assume the lead and control the race to the chequered flag.
Verstappen found his charge compromised by Valtteri Bottas, as the ‘wingman’ played his role to perfection, but an undercut strategy worked allowing the Red Bull driver to claim second.
Race Review
The top three got away in formation at the start as Carlos Sainz used his soft tyres to jump Sergio Perez into fourth.
Lando Norris also produced a nice move on Esteban Ocon for P6 in the McLaren.
Racing action would last just a lap, however, as the two Alfa Romeos touched on the main straight with Kimi Raikkonen’s front wing going under his car.
Antonio Giovinazzi was able to continue but the Safety Car was called to clear the debris.
At the restart, Verstappen pulled a beautiful move on Hamilton into Turn 1 for second and Lando Norris made up to places on Sainz and Perez for fourth.
Hamilton didn’t take long to respond, capitalising on a poor run for Max through the final corner to reclaim second with DRS.
Then, at the first realistic chance to attack, Lewis pounced on Bottas for the lead also into Turn 1.
That put the pressure on Verstappen to immediately try and also pass the Finn, but he was unable to do so and Hamilton slowly pulled away.
Red Bull stopped first for the hard tyre with Verstappen and the undercut worked as the Dutchman used his better grip to pass Bottas into Turn 5 as the Mercedes exited the pit.
Hamilton maintained the lead after his stop and had too much pace for Red Bull on the hard tyres as he powered to his second win of the season.
Instead, it appeared Bottas would rechallenge for second, but a loss of power cost the Finn five seconds, easing Max’s run to the chequered flag.
The final laps saw a titanic battle for the extra point for fastest lap, with Perez, who finish fourth, Bottas and Verstappen all pitting for soft tyres.
It appeared as if Verstappen had clinched it on the final lap, but his time was deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 14, meaning Bottas inherited the point.
In the midfield, Norris’ early moves saw him claim ‘best of the rest’ in fifth, holding off Charles Leclerc in sixth for Ferrari.
The two Alpines followed in seventh and eighth, with Fernando Alonso improving from 13th to finish just a second behind teammate Esteban Ocon over the line.
? Chequered flag! ?
Esteban P7 // Fernando P8?? #PortugueseGP ?? pic.twitter.com/KXnBwfskTl
— Alpine F1 Team (@AlpineF1Team) May 2, 2021
Daniel Ricciardo recovered from 16th to ninth as Pierre Gasly took the final point for P10 in the closing laps.
A lack of grip saw Sainz slip out of the points in 11th with Giovinazzi 12th for Alfa Romeo.
Sebastian Vettel was unable to convert his top 10 start into points in 13th, instead finishing just a second ahead of Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll in 14th.
Yuki Tsunoda was 15th, as George Russell slipped to 16th in a poor race for Williams.
Mick Schumacher passed Nicholas Latifi at Turn 3 for 17th, while Nikita Mazepin finished over a minute behind the rest of the pack in 19th.
Raikkonen was the only retirement following his early contact with Giovinazzi.
A fascinating race that saw Mercedes just have the edge on Red Bull pretty much throughout, and we do it all over again next weekend at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.
