Lewis Hamilton powered to a record-breaking 92nd Grand Prix win at the Portuguese Grand Prix.
Hamilton has now bettered the record of 91 race wins set by Michael Schumacher.
Mercedes also clinched a seventh straight Constructor’s Championship.
Light rain accompanied the start of the race at the recently resurfaced Portimão Circuit which hosted the Portuguese Grand Prix for the first time on Sunday 25 October.
Mad-cap start to Portuguese GP
In an action-packed start, Max Verstappen went up into second before the Red Bull collided with Sergio Perez’s Racing Point.
Valtteri Bottas made up for a slow start with a hard charge to take the lead.
Bottas wouldn’t lead long as the Mclaren of Carlos Sainz sensationally claimed the lead.
Sainz had done well to avoid the Verstappen-Perez incident swerving off the track to take third and leave him poised to take the Mercedes pair.Â
Part of the track was seeing showers and Sainz seemed the bravest of the leaders, following him were the Silver Arrows of Bottas and Hamilton followed by the leader’s teammate Lando Norris.
Verstappen settled into fifth with the cloud of a steward’s investigation into his collision with Perez. He was cleared of wrongdoing and pushed to pass Norris.
Bottas and Hamilton took Sainz as the Mercedes found their speed and the McLaren’s tyres began to wear thin.
Verstappen then became the main challenge for the championship-leading Mercedes team getting beyond the McLarens.
The Red Bull’s soft tyres began to give on the tenth lap with Bottas and Hamilton’s choice of mediums proving prudent.
Daniel Ricciardo was the first to pit on the 15th lap of the race just as Hamilton went fastest while also expressing his concern about his own tyres.
On the 18th lap Lance Stroll in the second Racing Point came off second-best in a duel with Norris at turn 1, both were forced into the pits with car damage. Stewards handed Stroll a five second penalty for his sins.
Hamilton takes the lead
Hamilton stormed into the lead of the race on the 20th lap with DRS making overtaking Bottas relatively straightforward.
Charles LeClerc’s Ferrari started to close on the Red Bull of Verstappen in third as the rain returned and Hamilton started to drop Bottas and take charge of the race.
By lap 25 Perez had fought his way back up to tenth place while his teammate, Stroll, was running last. Stroll would then pick up another five second penalty for exceeding track limits.
Verstappen would pit on lap 25 and put on a set of medium tyres for a big push through the middle of the race.
As the race approached halfway, Hamilton continued to lap faster than Bottas who was struggling to preserve his tyres while Verstappen was over 20 seconds back in fourth with Leclerc third at the end of lap 32 of 66.
Leclerc made his first and last stop on lap 35 as he put on a set of hard tyres intended to carry him to the end of the 66 lap race.Â
Bottas and Hamilton both stopped with 24 laps to go, but the Finn fed back into lapped backmarkers. He maintained his second-place though, ten seconds ahead of Verstappen
Bottas slow out of the pits
The second Mercedes struggled to get grip into those new hard compounds while Hamilton continued to stretch his lead to 13 seconds.
On lap 48 Bottas finally found his race pace setting the fastest lap but took very little out of Hamilton’s race lead.
With seven laps to go Hamilton reported a cramp having lapped the entire field bar Bottas, Verstappen and Leclerc.
Hamilton didn’t ever look like losing from the time he took the lead.
