Lewis Hamilton extended his championship lead to eight points following a great drive at the Portuguese GP which saw him make two on-track overtakes on Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas. Mercedes and Red Bull were in a class of their own in Portimao as they increased the advantage they had over the midfield runners compared to last time out in Imola.
Hamilton shows his racing class
The seven-time world champion had a far from ideal first part of the race, losing out to main rival Verstappen on the safety car restart. But he used all of his 14-year experience in Formula 1 to remain patient and ease his tyres into the optimal window before taking advantage of a mistake from Verstappen and Bottas' lack of pace. Both of his overtakes were very brave as he was not clearly in front for either of the moves. But, Hamilton sailed around the outside, kept the car within the track limits and went on to cruise to his 97th victory in F1.
Verstappen makes too many mistakes
Max Verstappen rued his qualifying error which saw his best laptime deleted, a lap that would have been good enough for pole position. This put him on the backfoot but he had another golden opportunity to win on Sunday. He made a brilliant safety car restart to overtake Hamilton but made a mistake at Turn 14 which gave Hamilton the opportunity to re-pass him. A further error when going for the fastest lap of the race saw Verstappen miss out on the bonus point for that particular feat. Given how many mistakes Verstappen made, he may feel he was lucky to only lose seven points to Hamilton in the title battle.
Difficult tyres and tarmac
Verstappen has also been particularly vocal about the low-grip Portimao tarmac, saying he did not enjoy a single lap throughout the whole event. The tarmac coupled with Pirelli's decision to use the three hardest tyre compounds (C1, C2 and C3) made things very trick for every team. Finding the optimal tyre window is normally a challenge but in Portimao, the track surface made it even tougher than usual. Mercedes seemed to handle the tyres best which could be an insight as to their preference for the harder tyre compounds wheares Red Bull go better with the softer tyres.
Alpine seriously impress
Following the first two events, Alpine appeared to be in big trouble, but they had a great Portuguese GP with Esteban Ocon in eighth and Fernando Alonso in seventh. Ocon was the star of qualifying and seems to be gelling with the car. He's more confident with the handling of the Alpine and currently has the upper hand over Alonso. It will be fascinating to see whether Alpine's form was a one-off and if they can perform well at the more traditional tracks.
Ferrari versus McLaren rages on
Lando Norris made it a hat-trick of races where he finished just ahead of Charles Leclerc. The battle between the pair is very exciting and Norris maximised the McLaren's performance once again whilst Daniel Ricciardo struggled. Leclerc failed to deliver one of his golden qualifying laps but recovered well to finish sixth. Just 11 points split Ferrari and McLaren in the battle for third place with the latter ahead at the moment.
AlphaTauri's pace disappears
AlphaTauri showed glimpses of being able to compete with Ferrari and McLaren but they fell behind Alpine at the Portuguese GP. Pierre Gasly picked up a solitary point whilst Yuki Tsunoda had a quiet weekend. AlphaTauri missed some big opportunities to score heavily in the first two rounds and they will be hoping they have more chances to pick up the good results they should have had in Bahrain and Imola. Alpine have now leapfrogged AlphaTauri in the constructors' championship to move into fifth place.
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