BEVERLY HILLS, May 02, (THEWILL) – British Formula One record racing driver for Mercedes Racing unit, Sir Lewis Hamilton, has won the Portuguese Grand Prix. The lead Mercedes driver took the race after passing both Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas on track in the early phase of the race to take the lead, which he masterfully held.
The 36-year-old Brit scarcely had any trouble after pulling ahead from the pair in the latter stages of the race, who were his closest rivals. It was a top four for Mercedes and Red Bull as Sergio Perez finished behind the three of them in the second Red Bull car.
The rest of the finishing line had McLaren’s Lando Norris in fifth, followed by Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari. Alpine duo of Esteban Ocon and Feranndo Alonso finished seventh and eighth, with Daniel Ricciardo in ninth and Pierre Gasly in tenth to round up the points.
One sour point of the race involved an incident with Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen, who rammed into teammate, Antonio Giovinazzi, and dislodged his front wing, causing him to run off into the gravel and out of the race, at that point.
The debris that resulted from the incident required the deployment of the Safety Car to clear the lanes for the racing to continue.
Though Verstappen overtook Hamilton in lap seven, by lap 11, the Brit was back in front of the Red Bull driver again and he claimed the lead from his Mercedes team mate into turn one on lap 20, with expert corner overtaking.
After changing tyres to soft for the fastest final lap, Hamilton eventually took the chequered flag almost half a minute ahead of Verstappen, with Bottas four seconds further back to win for a 97th time, extending his championship victories.
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Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
