Lewis Hamilton romped home to a comfortable win in the Portuguese Grand Prix as Max Verstappen kept the title fight alive by finishing second.
Hamilton had to overtake both Verstappen and polesitter Valtteri Bottas to hit the front. Though once he had done so, he walked away with unrivalled pace to a crushing victory.
After a lap one safety car following contact between the two Alfa Romeos, Verstappen overtook Hamilton around the outside into turn one.
A mistake at the penultimate corner three laps later opened the door for Hamilton to re-close the gap before snatching back second place.
It then took Hamilton another nine laps to reel in Bottas, with the swap of position coming again at the end of the DRS-assisted main straight.
“I think Max made a mistake at some point through the lap, which was perfect,” Hamilton said.
“I knew that was going to be the lap that I would be as close as I could to him in the last sector.
“And then with Valtteri I had to make the move early on before the tyres were destroyed. I managed to just get him at Turn 1, just right on the limit.”
Verstappen got ahead of Bottas during the pitstop phase.
Firstly, Red Bull brought the Dutch driver in for his stop one lap before Mercedes did with Bottas.
Despite Bottas emerging in front of Verstappen, he couldn’t bring his tyres up to temperature quickly enough.
Bottas got out of shape at turn three, and Verstappen sailed past on the short chute that leads into turn five.
Verstappen would also clinch the fastest lap of the race and sealed an extra championship point.
Sergio Perez finished a distant fourth. The second Red Bull opted to run a long first stint to fit soft tyres for the run home.
Lando Norris claimed fifth after resisting a late attack from Charles Leclerc.
Alpine executed a strong race for both of its drivers, with Esteban Ocon finishing seventh and Fernando Alonso in eighth.
Alonso had a mighty final stint and was able to overtake Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz in quick succession to claim a healthy dose of points.
Ricciardo bounced back after a dismal qualifying to finish ninth and salvage some championship points.
Pierre Gasly rounded out the points scorers after a late overtake on Carlos Sainz.
Championship-wise, Hamilton holds an eight-point advantage over Verstappen after three rounds of the world championship.
The next race will be the Spanish Grand Prix on May 7-10 NZT.
| Pos | Team | Gap |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | 29.148 |
| 3 | Valtteri Bottas | 33.530 |
| 4 | Sergio Perez | 39.735 |
| 5 | Lando Norris | 51.369 |
| 6 | Charles Leclerc | 55.781 |
| 7 | Esteban Ocon | 63.749 |
| 8 | Fernando Alonso | 64.808 |
| 9 | Daniel Ricciardo | 75.369 |
| 10 | Pierre Gasly | 76.463 |
| 11 | Carlos Sainz Jr | 78.955 |
| 12 | Antonio Giovinazzi | 1 lap |
| 13 | Sebastian Vettel | 1 lap |
| 14 | Lance Stroll | 1 lap |
| 15 | Yuki Tsunoda | 1 lap |
| 16 | George Russell | 1 lap |
| 17 | Mick Schumacher | 2 laps |
| 18 | Nicholas Latifi | 2 laps |
| 19 | Nikita Mazepin | 2 laps |
| 20 | Kimi Raikkonen |
