Hamilton achieves 150th points-finish; Bottas gets fastest lap and a point

By Malhaar Khaladkar

Lewis Hamilton took his 97^th career victory and second of the season ahead of chief title rival Max Verstappen in 2^nd and Mercedes teammate and pole sitter Valtteri Bottas in 3^rd. The race win also meant that Hamilton achieved points for the 150^th time since joining Mercedes in 2013.

London, 3 May 2021: Lewis Hamilton passed Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas on track to take a well-managed victory with the latter two completing the podium, Bottas bagging an extra point for the fastest lap of the race. The second Red Bull of Sergio Perez finished P4, his highest result since joining the Austrian squad. McLaren’s Lando Norris achieved P5, meaning he’s finished in the top 5 in all three races this season. Charles Leclerc brought home his Ferrari in P6 as Alpine achieved consecutive double points finishes with Esteban Ocon in P7 and Fernando Alonso in P8. Daniel Ricciardo recovered his McLaren to P9 after a disappointing qualifying with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly rounding out the top 10.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz crossed the line in P11 due to a strategy mistake, ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi. Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll finished P13 and P14 respectively for Aston Martin. Japanese rookie Yuki Tsunoda came home in P15. George Russell complained the Williams of being undrivable as he only managed P16 by the end of the chequered flag. Mick Schumacher overtook Williams’ Nicholas Latifi in the last stages of the race to finish P17. Haas teammate Nikita Mazepin finished last- P19 and the only retiree was Kimi Raikkonen.

The top four cars of Bottas, Hamilton, Verstappen and Perez started on the medium tyres. The top 3 got off the line well as they maintained the order heading into the uphill turn 4, while Perez lost a position to Sainz. Behind Ocon had jumped Norris, but the Briton pulled off a move on the outside of turn 11 to regain his position. Ricciardo too had made up three positions from P16. Meanwhile, Raikkonen was trying to slipstream Alfa Romeo teammate Giovinazzi when he ran into the back of him, dislodging his front wing and going into the gravel at turn 1. This brought out the safety car.

Bottas did a brilliant restart on lap 7 as Hamilton was slow to react, eventually being overtaken by Verstappen for P2. Behind, Sainz made a mistake as he dropped to P6 and Norris passed Perez for P4. Perez complaining that the McLaren driver had passed him off the track.

Hamilton repaid the favour to Verstappen on lap 11, using DRS and sling shotting past the Dutchman in turn 1, with the Red Bull power unit unable to match Mercedes. With that Hamilton was on the gearbox of Bottas, eventually passing his teammate on lap 20 to take the lead. The running order now was Hamilton, Bottas, Verstappen and Perez, albeit Perez far behind the top 3. Norris was best of the rest ahead of Sainz, Leclerc, Ocon, Gasly and Ricciardo.

Ferrari blinked first as they brought in Sainz for medium tyre on lap 21. To cover Sainz, Norris and Ocon pitted on lap 22, McLaren opting for the medium tyres whereas Alpine choosing the hard tyres. Gasly pitted on lap 24, choosing mediums as well while Leclerc pitted a lap later changing from mediums to hard tyres.

At the front of the field to undercut Bottas, Verstappen pitted on lap 35 for hard tyres. Bottas following suit the next lap came out just ahead of Verstappen but on colder tyres. As Bottas struggled for traction Verstappen with help of DRS moved ahead of the Finn before turn 5. Meanwhile race leader Hamilton pitted on lap 37 for hard tyres, emerging in P2 but having the net lead as Perez was yet to pit.

Behind the Leclerc passed Sainz on the instructions from Ferrari as the Spaniard struggled on the medium set of tyres. Ocon passed Sainz on lap 44. A fast-charging Alonso was flying on his set of the hard tyres as he passed Ricciardo and Sainz in quick succession to take P8. The final nail in the coffin came when Gasly passed Sainz dropping the Ferrari driver out of points.

Meanwhile, at the front Perez did a mammoth 51 lap stint on the medium tyres, eventually pitting for soft tyres in a bid to set the fastest lap of the race. Bottas was closing in on Verstappen but an exhaust sensor issue meant he suffered a power loss and lost 4s to the Red Bull. Bottas had enough of a gap to pit for soft tyres and emerge in front of Perez, in a bid to set the fastest lap. On lap 63 bolting on the softs the Finn set about going for the fastest lap point. Verstappen did the same thing next lap and although he did set the fastest lap due to track limits the time was deleted and the point went to Bottas.

With Hamilton’s second victory of the season, he now leads the championship by 8 points over Verstappen while Mercedes double podium means that they lead the constructor’s championship over Red Bull by 18 points. With 20 more races yet to come it is game on!

Mercedes was the outright fastest car this weekend as can be seen in both qualifying and the race. It is not the case that Mercedes have brought upgrades but more of the circuit characteristics suiting the W12 compared to the Red Bull. Red Bull evidently struggled in the low grip of the Portimao circuit, especially in race trim. Red Bull brought some upgrades to their floor and bargeboard area which seemed to make gains for them. The picture between the top 2 will be clearer next time out in Barcelona which is a more conventional circuit.

McLaren once again were the best of the rest behind the top 2, though this time they had a less of an advantage over immediate rivals Ferrari. Ferrari will be happy to beat McLaren in qualifying, but they struggled in the race to manage the tyres, especially mediums. Once again, the caveat being that this race was an outlier in terms of surface grip being very low. Alpine will be positive about the aerodynamic package introduced in the last race at Imola, as they achieved double points finish. The A521 showing top 10 qualifying pace in the hands of Ocon as well. AlphaTauri lacked both qualifying and race pace to challenge any of the midfield cars with Gasly picking up a solitary point in P10. After showing promising pace in the opening two rounds of the season they will be looking to bounce back at Barcelona next week.

Aston Martin were nowhere near top 10 this weekend. Vettel impressed in qualifying as he reached Q3 but that pace disappeared come race day. Stroll’s car had some new aerodynamic parts, but it remains to be seen if they are enough to make a leap forward for the British racing team. Alfa Romeo were on the fringes of points once again but could not break through to top 10. With Raikkonen retiring they had one less car on the strategy side, but the potential is there to achieve points. Williams had a contrasting weekend with Russell showing blistering qualifying pace, starting P11. But the FW43B was edgy and undrivable on heavy fuel in the race. Williams need to sort out these unpredictable characteristics of the car if they are to achieve points in 2021. Haas had a positive weekend with Schumacher able to split the Williams in the race and both drivers able to complete the race without any major incidents.

Saturday Qualifying Results were: