At its very core, motorsport has a singular goal – get to the chequered flag first.
All of the millions of dollars spent on research and development, the endless courting of sponsors, dealings over drivers and political wrangling over regulations is all in that primary pursuit of winning.While championship titles are the currency with which drivers bid for the title of the greatest of all time, the chronology of the record for most grand prix victories features some of the most revered names in motorsport’s storied history – Fangio, Ascari, Clark, Stewart, Prost, Schumacher.
At the 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix, a new name laid claim to this prestigious record – Hamilton.
Lewis Hamilton’s unprecedented 92nd victory was of surprise to no one, but the crushing manner in which he stormed to the new record was an appropriate way for him to surpass Schumacher’s benchmark which few once thought would ever be matched.
From its dramatic dips and fast, flowing corners, it’s little surprise that the circuit outside Portimao earned almost universal praise from the 20 drivers over the first two days of the weekend.
But despite the Algarve region of Portugal renowned as one of Europe’s most beautiful summer getaway spots, its late October race date meant Formula 1 was greeted with unrelenting autumn winds for its first racing trip to the venue.
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As the field set off for the formation lap, Carlos Sainz Jnr in seventh could feel spots of rain falling on his visor. Sensing that tyre temperature would be at a premium for the start, he decided to put extra effort into warming his soft tyres. It would prove a smart strategy.
Hamilton launched into the lead from pole position when the lights went out. Valtteri Bottas, starting alongside on the dirty side of the grid, was immediately on the defensive with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez to his left and Charles Leclerc to his right.
As they all swept through the fast first turn for the first time, Verstappen briefly took second place, but Bottas kept it tight through turn two and lunged up the inside of Red Bull into turn three to take back the position.
Much like in Sochi with Lance Stroll and Leclerc, the stewards determined there was no need to investigate the collision. F1 race director Michael Masi later admitted it would have been viewed different if it hadn’t happened on the first lap of the race. “Lap one incidents are treated slightly more leniently,” he said. Perez later accepted that there might have been less space than he thought.
Grip was almost non-existent for most of the field during a treacherous opening lap. Hamilton had a snap of oversteer through turn six and was reporting rain to the team on the radio as Bottas breezed past him and into the lead. Later, Hamilton explained he saw his team mate approaching but decided it was better not to fight him and instead concentrate on generating grip in his tyres.
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Behind, Sainz was putting his warmer soft tyres to great use and was up to third having passed Leclerc and Verstappen. As the Mercedes tiptoed around the circuit fighting for any traction, Sainz was leaning on the rally skills he had inherited from his world champion father and swept by Hamilton around the outside of turn 11.
“I got a couple of spots and then I think Leclerc on lap two,” said the Renault driver. “So I was up to seventh and I was like ‘not a bad start’. Then I saw Kimi just drive around the outside of me. I was like, ‘he didn’t start 11th, nor 12th, where did he come from?'”
After a frantic opening lap, Bottas was out front, but Sainz was closing fast. As the pair rounded the hairpin of turn five, Sainz easily out-dragged the Mercedes and stormed into the lead.
“It was exciting,” Sainz said after the race. “I think my dad would especially have been happy with the rally skills.”
The [theoretically] socially-distanced fans in the Portimao grandstands roared their approval as Sainz crossed the line in the lead of the Portuguese Grand Prix. But they were not the only ones enjoying this unusual figure out front.
Wolff’s pleasure in seeing an underdog shine in the early stages was likely rooted in the knowledge the track conditions would come to his Mercedes pair. And inevitably, they did.
Entering lap six with the track conditions stabilised, Bottas was now in DRS range and, with fully warmed tyres underneath him, he zoomed past the McLaren along the pit straight, ending Sainz’s novel cameo at the front. Over the next two laps, Sainz was also passed by Hamilton and Verstappen respectively.
With normal service having been resumed at the front, the two Mercedes team mates traded fastest laps as they began to pull away from Verstappen in third.
Having pitted on the opening lap after his collision with Verstappen, Perez had taken just 12 laps to catch up to Kevin Magnussen at the rear of the field. With rapid pace in his Racing Point, he began to steadily pick off the back markers one by one.
Ahead, Perez’s team mate Stroll was putting Norris under intense pressure for seventh. The McLarens had been mighty in the opening laps, but both Sainz and Norris were beginning to fall back down the order with Leclerc and Pierre Gasly taking advantage.
The pair collided at the apex, pitching the Racing Point into the turn one run off for the second time in three days and leaving the McLaren needing to pit for a new front wing. A furious Norris unleashed a torrent of profanity at his rival, for which he later apologised, while reserving his criticism of Stroll’s driving.
The stewards appeared to agree with Norris’s evaluation, handing Stroll a five-second time penalty and two penalty points for failing to leave adequate room for the McLaren in the corner.
Back out front, Hamilton had decided that now was the time to turn the pressure up on Bottas. Over three consecutive laps, he pumped in new fastest laps of the race to slash the lead from two seconds to just half a second.
As the pair rounded the high-speed, banked final corner to begin lap 20, Hamilton had DRS and a slipstream, giving him a 20kph advantage over his team mate.
Bottas pulled right to try and cover off the inside, but it was futile. Hamilton easily shot past and into the lead of the race. “Of course I tried to defend, but the rate he was closing there was nothing really I could do,” Bottas later explained. After three laps, Hamilton was already three seconds ahead of the former race leader.
As Hamilton continued to pull away from his team mate out front, there were some notable gaps between team mates throughout the field.
Leclerc, who had inherited third from Verstappen after the Red Bull pitted, was half a minute ahead of Sebastian Vettel, who had been lucky to escape unscathed after being clipped by Antonio Giovinazzi on the opening lap.
Alexander Albon cannot have failed to get the message about how important these latter races of 2020 are for his Red Bull future, following the comments of Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko and team principal Christian Horner. But worryingly for his chance, he was sitting outside of the points and once again not in the same class as his team mate.
Compounding Albon’s frustrations Gasly – the man he had replaced at Red Bull last year – was enjoying his strongest weekend since his stunning maiden win in Monza, running as high as fifth after passing Sainz’s McLaren.
Perez’s impressive comeback drive following his first lap spin and subsequent pit stop had seen him on the tail of Esteban Ocon’s Renault in sixth. Ocon was in the midst of an extremely long opening stint but was making it work.
As Perez pulled alongside at the start of lap 34, the pair engaged in a spectacular battle, racing hard but fair all the way to the exit of turn eight, the Racing Point driver ultimately prevailing. On a day when the DRS zone tipped the balance of power way in favour of those attempting to overtaking, it was a welcome moment of true wheel-to-wheel action.
With no answer for his team mate’s pace, Bottas briefly flirted with the idea of switching to soft tyres in case it just happened to somehow offer an advantage. Mercedes, however, were not warm to that suggestion.
When Bottas resumed after his own single stop on lap 40, he would never be any closer to his team mate for the rest of the race. Hamilton relentlessly pulled away as Bottas floundered on the hards.
“Lewis got [the hards] to work quite well quite quickly,” Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin explained. “Valtteri dropped into some backmarker traffic which meant he was having to run at their pace, not a natural pace. At that point there was about 10 degrees of difference in the tyre temperature and you could see that it was manifesting itself as near enough a second of lap time.”
It was another all too-familiar story for Bottas, who yet again had shown early promise but had been unable to contain his team mate.
Perez had made a second stop to switch onto the soft tyres for the final 19 laps of the race, but after such a strong fight back on the mediums, he quickly learned why it was not a popular compound that weekend.
After Ocon had finally pitted on lap 55, Perez was sitting in fifth place but gradually being caught by Gasly’s AlphaTauri. It was the closing laps by the time Gasly reached striking distance and the most likely passing point would be turn one.
Gasly had to back off to avoid hitting the Racing Point ahead, allowing Perez to keep his position. While the stewards later agreed that Perez had not moved in reaction to Gasly, they determined Perez had “not sufficiently accounted for the speed differential” between the two and handed him a reprimand. Remarkably, it was his second in as many days for incidents involving Gasly.
Just a lap later, Gasly had his revenge. Choosing the outside line times time, he swept by the Racing Point through turn one. “Around the outside,” Gasly pointed out to his engineer.
Having started his 66th and final lap, Hamilton was now almost half a minute clear out front and simply cruising towards a meeting with history. It had been one of the most challenging (largely) dry races for some time, but that had only made Hamilton’s dominance all the more remarkable.
Bottas crossed 25 seconds after, with Verstappen taking the final podium place having lapped team mate Albon who had been brought in to make a second stop 19 laps from the end.
Leclerc had driven a strong but quiet race to take fourth in the Ferrari, albeit half a minute behind Verstappen. Gasly finished in an impressive fifth to only compound Albon’s troubles, while Sainz recovered pace in the second half of the race to pass Perez in the closing laps and claim sixth.
Ocon enjoyed what he described as Renault’s best collaborative race to finish ahead of team mate Ricciardo for only the second time all season in eighth.
Vettel took the final point for Ferrari in tenth, almost 40 seconds behind his team mate. Vettel’s place came at the expense of Raikkonen, who deserved a points finish in his Alfa Romeo after his incredible start.
“It’s going to take some time to fully sink in,” he said. “I could only ever have dreamed to have been where I am today.”
Having claimed the all time pole position record, podium appearances record and now the wins record, only force majeure now stands between him and his seventh world championship.
His record breaking victory had been a visceral demonstration of the relentless raw ability that has powered him to such lofty successes throughout his career. Yet, as ever, he made a point to recognise the contribution of the Mercedes team that had been instrumental in his achievement.
F1’s first ever race around the Algarve International Circuit provided fans with action, excitement and a day which will live long in the sport’s history. A track which was never supposed to be on this year’s calendar, and may never be again, became the venue for one of F1’s greatest accomplishments.
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Robert (@rob8k)
26th October 2020, 11:07
I know the race won’t be remembered as a classic but I have quite enjoyed going to some of these older tracks. I would actually quite like to see a World Grand Prix on the calendar where the race changes each year to maybe include past tracks to the calendar without having to commit to multi-year deals.
I also wonder what the weekend would be like if Friday practice the teams were supplied a tyre of unknown from Pirelli and then given the race allocated tyres on Saturday practice. Quite liked the variation in qualifying that led to differing strategy in the race.
Darryn Smith (@darryn)
26th October 2020, 19:42
Isn’t that track 10 years old?
Ajaxn
26th October 2020, 11:11
Its one thing to drive based on your acquired experiance of a track, this race was the exception. Most, if not all the drivers had no recent experiance of this track, which made this a unique test of the driver.
This race was a fitting test of Hamilton’s ability to adapt to the unknown. Bottas was said to have prepared with simulators. We don’t know what Hamilton did to prepare for this race. Whatever he did, come the day he was clearly the best prepared, or the best adapted to this unknown. Call it natural, intelligent, canny or lucky, it was a spectacular confirmation of his talents.
I wonder how many of the previous greats have faced a similar test.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
26th October 2020, 14:41
Well, given the fact that until recently advanced simulators did not exist, I would wager to guess all of them.
Anyway, can anyone remember the last time Bottas showed better tyre management than Hamilton?
DonSmee (@david-beau)
26th October 2020, 15:30
70th Aniversary GP
Dave (@davewillisporter)
26th October 2020, 17:47
@david-beau That was the race where Hamilton stayed out due better tyre management and overtook Bottas to finish second.
Rott
26th October 2020, 12:14
So happy to witness such a feat. Now let’s see who will break these records.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Tristan (@skipgamer)
26th October 2020, 12:19
One has to wonder if in a non-DRS era how easy that overtake would have been. I think, based on what we’ve seen in wheel to wheel battles between the two he probably would have got the job done anyway, but it still does leave ones mind to wonder with regards to how different the racing would be without it. (Not meaning to take anything away from Hamilton at all, the rules are the same for everyone.)
Steve (@scbriml)
26th October 2020, 12:20
I would love to see F1 return here, but that DRS zone needs to be shorter. The overtakes were too easy.
BasCB (@bascb)
26th October 2020, 12:34
Good point @skipgamer. The DRS clearly was far too powerfull this weekend, they should have at least shortened it, that way we could have had more battles like what we saw from Norris vs. Verstappen for a short while and between Perez and Ocon IMO.
Colly
26th October 2020, 15:46
If you remember Hamilton in 2007, before DRS, you will remember a young kid, who could do this crazy thing called overtaking. He was such a wonderful breath of fresh air and why I warmed to him. Very few of the other drivers had the ability.
I think he would have passed Bottas with or without DRS.
GnosticBrian (@gnosticbrian)
26th October 2020, 20:28
Tristan – in earlier, non-aero eras, it was easier for cars to follow each other closely – just look at footage of Fanjio and Moss.
slowmo (@slowmo)
26th October 2020, 23:54
On the same tyres and in the same car, even with DRS, Hamilton would need a big performance delta over his teammate to overtake. Lets not ignore how notoriously bad the Mercedes is in dirty air too. Simply put he was at least a second lap quicker at that stage and with or without DRS he was going by him. You don’t see many on track genuine overtakes, even DRS assisted, between teammates. I thought DRS was perfect for the most part as it genuinely put cars side by side into turn 1 for the most part rather than breezing past on the straight before even approaching the braking zone like some circuits.
David Bondo
26th October 2020, 12:24
80 front row lockouts in the hybrid era goes a long way to helping beat Schumacher.
Ferrari in their championship years between 2000-04 had 15 front row lockouts.
Keep in mind that in 2003 and 2004 they had to qualify with their starting fuel load.
But between 2000-02 where qualifying was based on raw pace, Ferrari had 9 front row lockouts.
Mercedes have had 10 front row lockouts 12 races into this season!
N
26th October 2020, 13:11
Damn, that really shows how weak Ferrari’s 2nd driver was.
David Bondo
26th October 2020, 13:36
Barrichello had some incredible performances at Jordan and Stewart. Widely regarded as one of the quickest on the grid when he went to Ferrari. That’s why Ferrari dumped Irvine.
Wouldn’t matter who you had in some of these Mercedes cars could be Stroll and Latifi and they’d lock out the front row.
I don’t think some people realise just how dominant the Mercedes has been compared to other cars.
Dave (@davewillisporter)
26th October 2020, 13:49
Ross Brawn:
“I often felt with Michael, there were races he won which he should not have won because the car wasn’t good enough but he managed to find a way to win. And that is what makes a world champion.
Lewis has demonstrated that. He’s got a great car now, but I recall him winning races when the car was not a top performer. And Charles is doing similar at Ferrari right now.”
JCost (@jcost)
26th October 2020, 14:50
Qualy rules are not even comparable David. Personally I’d look at relative numbers before the absolute ones but we cannot deny it’s a huge day for Lewis. I understand preferences and diferent critiria one uses to qualify who’s the GOAT but keeping Lewis from any top 3 all time has become much harder after this record.
David Bondo
26th October 2020, 15:01
Up until 2002 qualifying was based on raw pace. From 2003 until the end of the refuelling era in 2009 they qualified with their race fuel.
Only 2003-06 the numbers are skewed for Schumacher with regards to qualifying, but 2003 was a genuine three way fight with the Williams and McLaren, and 2005 the Ferrari wasn’t competitive because of the tyre rules adopted to denying Schumacher winning.
2000-02 when qualifying was still based on raw pace as it is today, Ferrari had 9 front row starts.
Mercedes have had 80 in the hybrid era and 10 front row starts 12 races into this year.
tony mansell
26th October 2020, 15:13
Contractually Bottas can beat Hamilton and so could Nico. One off them cant do it and the other one did it once and promptly retired.
You spend so much time trying to belittle Lewis’ results you might almost think you had a dislike for him.
Anyway you keep plugging away and remember that MS duvet cover wont wash itself
David Bondo
26th October 2020, 16:38
Barrichello was allowed to beat Schumacher he just rarely got the opportunity to because he wasn’t as quick. In the 90’s there was a 4 year period where Schumacher wasn’t outqualified by a teammate.
List all the wins that Barrichello was denied by Ferrari. Schumacher paid Barrichello back for Austria 2002 at Indy 2002. Hamilton still hasn’t paid back Bottas for Russia 2018.
aezy_doc
26th October 2020, 17:47
What is wrong with you Bondo? Any rational conversation with you is impossible.
slowmo (@slowmo)
26th October 2020, 23:55
He’s a mythological creature that abides under a bridge. Don’t feed him.
Darryn Smith (@darryn)
26th October 2020, 19:45
Schumacher had that thing he did that was a one man front row lockout. He would just swing across in front of the car that was second on the grid and his competitors back then would let him get away with it. Schmacher only needed the pole and he had a lot of them as well as weaker opposition who would just get out of his way if he threatened to knock them off the road.
F1oSaurus (@)
26th October 2020, 20:35
Hamilton has a team mate. Schumacher had a pawn in the second car.
David Bondo
27th October 2020, 4:40
Schumacher dominated Barrichello because he was by far the best driver on the grid. It’s debateable whether Hamilton is the best on the grid. Rosberg did beat him in 2016. Bottas wasn’t much quicker than a Massa 6-7 years past his peak.
In Hamilton’s second race for Mercedes, Ross Brawn issued team orders forbidding the much faster Rosberg to pass Hamilton third place. Still owes Bottas for stealing the win from him in Russia 2018 with team orders.
Schumacher paid back Barrichello for Austria 2002 at Indy 2002. Schumacher had Malaysia 99 stolen from him when he had to hand the win to Irvine. Hamilton has never had to move over for a teammate.
Kevin C (@kev-f1)
26th October 2020, 12:26
I really enjoyed F1’s visit to Portugal, a little bit of excitement at the start to mix the field up, No serious / dangerous crashes, Weather only slightly teasing the teams with the threat of rain, and the amazing undulating track! All topped off by Lewis’s record breaking 92nd win!
Tom Debaes
26th October 2020, 12:32
Good comment! Most people still don’t know how far Mercedes is ahead off the competition and I rate Bottas lower then Barrichello.
Rodber
26th October 2020, 12:51
Meanwhile, the finest feat of driving in the race yesterday went unseen by FOM and was not even shown in post race. I’m talking about Kimi’s incredible first lap up from 16th all the way to fighting with Max for 5th, with not a single crash out or incident on the way to help him. Just dazzling driving.
Did HAM in that rocket of a car ever scythe through the field from the back to 6th in one lap?? Haha. Never.
Sky didn’t show the Kimi onboard post race. Why? Because we had interviews with HAM’s father, HAM’s minder, HAM’s masseuse, HAM’s dog, HAM’s scalextric set…..
Rodber
26th October 2020, 12:53
p.s. it’s available on the Sky site.
David BR (@david-br)
26th October 2020, 13:13
Yeah, pity Raikkonen didn’t show that application of talent while pottering around as number two driver at Ferrari and got dumped. We know he’s good. But not ever bothered enough to build on his one championship. Maybe if he had tried using that talent more, he’d get more coverage?
N
26th October 2020, 13:13
Raikkonen was on nice and toasty warm soft tyres, having spent much less time lining up at the back of the field.
Next?
slowmo (@slowmo)
26th October 2020, 23:58
First honest post on the subject I’ve seen. He was so fast because he was so far back that he had temperature in his tyres from the formation lap and the luck to pick a good line around the first half of the lap avoiding others carnage. He did well to take advantage of the situation but there was a huge amount of luck that factored into it.
DaveW (@dmw)
26th October 2020, 13:19
I wonder if Perez could have been third but for getting punted on lap one (and putting on those horrible red tires at the end). The progress he made from dead last with no safety cars is amazing. And verstappen was struggling really from halfway through the first stint.
D odnoB
26th October 2020, 15:59
Week after week, we see several posts saying exactly the same thing.
These awful opinions are always countered by the actual facts e.g. currently 92 race wins, 6 WDCs, a podium in first race in first season & a win in only third race in rookie f1 season, most poles ever.
Matching and by finishes being ahead of a 2xwdc team mate (who beat M Sch to wdc) in first season.
But someone’s authoritative opinion belittle these fantastic facts and achievements with revisionism and peversely skewed opinions.
As someone famously said about one race ago, ‘the cream always rises to the top’. However since then we have learnt that only applies to qualifying sessions or if the driver fits a certain description.
You are not even blowing against the wind but a hurricane and as is the way nowadays we should give this hurricane a name; Hurricane Hamilton sounds about right !!!
Andy Bunting (@wildbiker)
27th October 2020, 7:50
+1
melanos
27th October 2020, 23:14
the scum does too
Jay
26th October 2020, 17:38
As the engineer said on the radio, Bottas was front tyre limited and Hamilton was rear tyre limited.
Clearly Hamilton’s driving style is the way to go with current generation cars. Bottas probably can’t adapt.
Andy Bunting (@wildbiker)
27th October 2020, 7:50
Lewis Hamilton’s unique talents have always been to the fore in 2 prime areas in current F1.
1. Tyre management. Always excels.
2. Rain/Wet weather driving. Superlative.