Four talking points from the Portuguese GP | GRR
Lewis Hamilton looked like he might be defeated in Portugal on Sunday, not only by Max Verstappen but also by Valtteri Bottas too. But we know it by now: you can never rule out the seven-time world champion. Instead, he put in a masterful comeback to pass both the Red Bull driver and his own Mercedes-AMG team-mate to claim a 97th grand prix victory.
Hamilton made to sweat
This one was far from easy for Sir Lewis. He’d found himself outqualified by Bottas by a scant 0.007 seconds, then fluffed a rolling start after Kimi Räikkönen forced an early safety car interruption when he ran into the back of Alfa Romeo team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi as the field began lap two. Leader Bottas timed his own restart perfectly, catching out Hamilton who then found himself vulnerable to attack from Verstappen. The Imola race winner pulled off a lovely move around the outside, much to Hamilton’s annoyance.
But four laps later, the black Mercedes swept back inside the Red Bull at Turn 1, Hamilton using the DRS advantage to perfection to leave Verstappen feeling like a “sitting duck.” Now he tracked Bottas, pulling off a sweet DRS-assisted outside pass at Turn 1 nine laps later. Against Bottas, it all looked too easy. From there, the race was in Hamilton’s grasp. A long-running Sergio Perez led for a while, but Hamilton picked him off with ease – even if he failed to grasp the Mexican had actually been leading – and the result was never in doubt.
But there was also little doubt that Hamilton had been made to sweat for this one. “That was such a tough race, physically and mentally, keeping everything together,” he said. “I didn’t quite get as good a start as Valtteri and then lost out at the restart which was not good. I had to try and reposition myself best I could, I think Max made a mistake at some point and that was perfect. With Valtteri I had to make the move early on before the tyres were destroyed and I just managed to get him at Turn 1. Right on my limit. Great race.”
Bottas fails to convert his pole
“You’re the fastest car, Valtteri, hunt him down,” said Mercedes-AMG boss Toto Wolff on the radio after Bottas tried in vain to take back the the second place he had lost to Verstappen. Once Hamilton was past him, the Finn appeared to time his switch to hard Pirellis perfectly, stopping a lap later than Verstappen and emerging still ahead of the Dutchman. But as he struggled for grip on the relatively cold rubber, Verstappen pounced with a neat move into the Turn 4 hairpin. No cajoling or encouragement from Wolff was going to pep up another disappointing day for the second Mercedes driver.
The Red Bull certainly didn’t seem to have the pace to match the Mercs at a gusty Portimao, at least on the white-labelled hard tyres – but still Bottas was unable to close Verstappen down, never mind make a pass. Instead, he dropped away, then pitted for soft tyres to at least go for the point for fastest lap. Verstappen did the same and even appeared to pip Bottas to this, but his last lap effort was deleted for a track limits violation, handing the point back to Valtteri. You sensed it was barely a consolation.
Good days for Norris and Leclerc
Behind Perez in fourth, Lando Norris put in another strong performance following his Imola podium, scoring more good points in fifth for McLaren from seventh on the grid. In contrast, team-mate Daniel Ricciardo failed to progress from Q1 on Saturday afternoon, then put in a shift to rise from 16th on the grid to ninth at the flag. Good effort – but the Australian will be uncomfortable that he’s yet to get a grip on his new McLaren and has a 21-year-old team-mate who is so far up the road at the moment.
Charles Leclerc found himself outqualified by Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr. for the first time this year, lining up a disappointed eighth. But he was better placed in the race, starting on the medium Pirellis rather than the softs Sainz found himself on. As Carlos went backwards with a strategy his Ferrari couldn’t live with – notably in contrast to Norris’s McLaren that went forward despite starting on the same soft tyres – Leclerc rose to finish sixth. Along the way, Sainz was forced to cede a place to Charles under instruction from the pit wall. That always hurts.
Alonso shows his class
Fernando Alonso’s return to F1 has been pretty low-key so far this season and again in Portugal he was out of the limelight, qualifying a disappointing 13th despite showing good pace. But his race performance gave the two-time world champion reason to be hopeful ahead of his home grand prix in Barcelona next weekend. The Alpine driver rose to a fine eighth aided by a long first stint, finishing just behind his French team-mate Esteban Ocon. The team formerly known as Renault is now fifth in the constructors’ standings after this double points score and appears set to play a full part in a typically intense midfield scrap.
New Toyota wins on WEC debut
Meanwhile at Spa-Francorchamps on Saturday, a new era for the World Endurance Championship kicked off as Toyota gave its new GR010 Hybrid Hypercar a debut victory. But it was far from plain sailing for the dominant force in sports car racing.
There’s much to be excited about when it comes to this new age of the Hypercar class (known as LMH) – but not just yet. The two Toyotas were the only LMH cars on the entry for the Spa 6 Hours as they faced a lone ‘grandfathered’ LMP1 entry from Alpine. Peugeot will join them, but not until next year, then Audi, Porsche and Ferrari are due in 2023. For now, the fresh chapter begins in modest fashion.
A Toyota win was predictable with such a thin field, but the Cologne-based team made heavy weather of the race. The #7 car driven by reigning world champions Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez was delayed when the Japanese driver went off because of a brake problem with two hours to run. A drive-through penalty for contact with a GT contender further hampered the crew.
That left Sebastian Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley to win in the #8 GR010, despite a 30-second penalty for a pitstop violation. That at least allowed the Alpine A480 driven by Nicolas Lapierre, Andre Negrao and Matthieu Vaxiviere to remain in contention and split the Toyotas at the flag.
On this showing, it’s probably best for Toyota that the Le Mans 24 Hours has been delayed until August because of the pandemic. The WEC heads to Portimao next, for an eight-hour race on 13th June.
Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.