Stop if you have heard this before – Lewis Hamilton has won a Formula One grand prix race this year. The race in question was the 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix and after an initial rain-caused bit of chaos at the start, the race eventually settled down and, in the end, it was yet another 1-2 Mercedes snoozefest with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen coming in his characteristic third place – the same exact order of finish for seven races so far this year.
The six-time defending world Formula 1 champion Hamilton sat on pole position with his Mercedes teammate, Valterri Bottas, alongside him in his customary role – but intermittent rain falling on some sections of the track created havoc on the first lap and allowed first Bottas to take the lead and then, McLaren’s Carlos Sainz, Jr. with Hamilton dropping to third while cars dealt with the slippery conditions.
But the rain stopped and so did Sainz, Jr.’s lead on the sixth lap with Bottas overtaking the Spaniard followed, on the next lap with Hamilton overtaking him. It would be another 13 laps before Hamilton could overtake Bottas. Hamilton then held the lead for the remainder of the race with the brief exception of the pit crossover on Lap 41-42 when Hamilton pitted before Bottas. Only four cars finished the race on the lead lap.
With the victory, Hamilton extends his commanding lead in the driver’s standings but also becomes the all-time winningest driver in F1 history with 92 wins – breaking the record formerly held by Michael Schumacher.
2020 Portuguese Grand Prix Top 10
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari
5 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri
6 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren
7 Sergio Pérez Racing Point
8 Esteban Ocon Renault
9 Daniel Ricciardo Renault
10 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari