Brendan Lines October 20, 2020

Lewis Hamilton crushed the competition to win the Portugese Grand Prix, overtaking Michael Shumacher’ s record of the most race wins, Hamilton’s 92nd victory in Formula One is his eighth win of the 2020 season, Valtteri Bottas finished second, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen third.

The Brit now holds Formula 1’s all time greatest race winning record and is set to equal Shumacher’s record of seven drivers championships.

“I could only ever have dreamed of being where I am today,” Hamilton said.

“I didn’t have a crystal ball when I chose to come to this team and partner with these great people.

” I chose to come to this team and partner with these great people. What I can tell you is that I am trying to make the most of it every single day.

“Everything that we do together, we are all growing in the same direction and that’s why you’re seeing the success that we’re having.

“My dad is here which is amazing, my step-mum Linda is here, Roscoe too. I feel very blessed.

“It’s going to take some time for it to sink in. I was still pushing flat out coming across the line and I am still in race mode mentally. I can’t find the words at the moment.”

Hamilton’s dominance on the race came out of a chaotic start, losing the lead from pole to Bottas at Turn 1, Hamilton was not alone struggling for grip on the Medium tyres in cold slippery conditions as rain sprinkled the Portimao track.

Both Mercedes cars kept losing ground out front as McLaren’s Carlos Sainz astonishingly snatched the lead in the opening fracarr after starting from P7 on the grid.

The biggest loser in the dramatic opening scenes was Racing Point’s Sergio Perez, who was spun around after being clipped by Verstappen rejoining the track after running wide at Turn 4 — the incident went without investigation from race stewards, Stroll retired his car on Lap 54 from its wounds.

Perez slipped back to P20, next to Hamilton, Perez’s recovery drive was another stand out performance of the day to finish P7.

The Mexican single handedly took valuable constructors points against rival McLaren after teammate Lance Stroll’s DNF.

Sainz’s fragile lead on degrading Soft tyres soon sucumed to both Mercedes on Medium tyres, the addition of DRS was no help to Sainz as Verstappen soon overtook Sainz.

The natural order was restored out front on Lap 8, despite Hamilton running +1.6s behind Bottas in P2.

The single DRS zone on the front straight played a heavy influence, Kimi Räikkönen’s mighty P16 to P6 start was eaten away as many of the faster runners were able to account for his Alfa Romeo.

On Lap 18, Stroll rocketed around the outside of McLaren’s Lando Norris with the aid of DRS, leaving little racing room into Turn 1, the two came together in tank-slapping style — the stewards whacked Stroll with a five-second time penalty as Norris was relegated back to P20 dashing his hopes of a good haul of points.

Hamilton continued to hunt his teammate, eventually on Lap 20 the Brit took the lead passing Bottas at Turn 1 and continued to open up his lead over the ensuing laps. Hamilton persisted through the graining phase of his tyres, at his single pit stop for the race, Hamilton had cleared Bottas by ten seconds and Verstappen by +49.0s.

Charles Leclerc race yielded a much improved and sustained effort from Ferrari all weekend, Leclerc qualified and held P4 convincingly in patches just +0.4s off Mercedes pace over a lap — it was ‘okay’ day for teammate Sebastian Vettel finishing P10.

Pierre Gasly continued his claim as the season’s most improved and worth to future contract prospects finishing P5, the Frenchman aggressively went for Perez on Lap 64, but got the job done the next lap on his way to an impressive finish.

Renault’s Esteban Ocon pulled off the mother of all overcuts, going 55 laps deep into the 66-lap race before his pit stop. Ocon came out in front of teammate Daniel Ricciardo as the pair finished P8 and P9 respectively.

Hamilton’s only worry for the day was a slight cramp to a calf muscle towards the closing stages, but his speed was unaffected, as Hamilton stormed home with a commanding +25.592s lead, out-classing the field to now become a class unto his own as the record holder of the most wins ever in Formula 1.