The 2021 championship race continues to live up to its promise after another intriguing race in Portugal yesterday afternoon. The race may not have been quite as action packed as the first two events of the year but it was still a very good sporting contest and once again we saw some excellent wheel to wheel action. Lewis Hamilton brilliantly drove to victory after making two superb moves into turn one on Verstappen and Bottas respectively, the pass around the outside of his team mate especially was very impressive, and these made up for two small errors earlier that cost him second place at the restart.
So it is two to one in terms of wins between the two main title contenders but Verstappen and RedBull should not be disheartened by this. Firstly this is a long season and there are many events to come yet. Secondly for Max to split the two Mercs and run at the same pace as them in the early phase of the race at a track and in conditions were you would expect the reigning champs to be at their best shows how close things are this season. You got the feeling from Friday practice onwards that the RedBull was not the fastest package of the weekend as it had looked in Bahrain and Imola so a second place and eight points behind in the title race is a good result.
Valterri Bottas started on Pole and would have been hoping to turn his season around after a lackluster first two races and the early part of the race suggested he may do this. Getting to turn one first is the first objective and he duly achieved this, and he also played the restart perfectly as he caught Lewis off guard and left him to be picked off by Max. But as the laps counted down and the top four runners left their stops as late as possible it was Lewis who seemed to manage the tyres the best and after he took advantage of the Dutchman’s little wobble out of turn fourteen to get a run on him into the first corner and retake second place he then hunted down his Finnish team mate and made the aforementioned outside pass into turn one stick and was the never headed again. .
Bottas lost out to Verstappen after RedBull used the undercut to good effect. Valterri came out of the pits ahead but on cold tyres he couldn’t keep Max behind. After that his pursuit of the leading RedBull was not helped by a sensor issue that held his pace back. He did have the consolation of the point for fastest lap after Verstappen was striped of that for the dreaded track limits problem that continues to confuse everyone. Something tells me though that will not make Bottas feel much better about a race that could have promised more. He still sits fourth in the drivers table behind Lando Norris after yet another fine drive by the young Brit and for a driver with a Mercedes under him that will not feel good.
Norris battled hard and diced wheel to wheel with Ocon in the early laps, fifth was probably the best he could have achieved as McLaren were not a challenge for the top two teams but he made no errors and fifth is another good haul of points for the team. Lando was again the leading McLaren after a disaster for Ricciardo on Saturday left him out of Q2. He battled back to ninth and two points after a good drive but was again outshine by Norris. It was the Australian who looked the more comfortable of the two after Friday practice, Norris even questioned whether he would make it into Q3 but things turned around in quali. Ricciardo will be hoping for a solid weekend in Barcelona this coming weekend.
Ferrari’s weekend was ok if not spectacular and they can be satisfied with sixth for LecLerc. Unfortunately Sainz dropped back out of the points after outqualifying his team mate for the first time and running well early on. A long run till the end after his stop though made him a sitting duck for the later stoppers and he ended the race eleventh. That long a stint on the medium tyres was a big mistake on strategy which the team acknowledged post race. I think he should take comfort though from the fact that he looked comfortable and settled in the car for the first time since he joined and I would expect a result from him at his home race on a few days time.
The other big take away from Portimao was the progress made by Alpine since the first race. Ocon, who has himself made a step forward I feel, qualified an impressive sixth and finished in a solid seventh place with team mate Alonso just behind after a battling drive from thirteenth on the grid. Alonso like countryman Sainz looked much happier in the car and it was by far the best showing of his return so far. He must improve in qualifying, starting outside the top ten will always make the race a tough one but all in all a good weekend and a good haul of points for the Alpine team.
Further back Aplha Tauri had a difficult weekend, Gasly got a point for tenth but it was a hard slog and they did not show the pace that they had in Imola. Williams also had a very difficult afternoon. Russell drove to a very good eleventh on Saturday but in the race he never troubled the top ten and tumbled down the order. Team mate Latifif also found life difficult, the Williams car just does not seem to behave that well when following other cars. That didn’t appear to be so evident at the first two events but it badly effected their weekend this time and it is not a good trait for a car and team that is always running deep in the pack.
There we go then, race three is in the books and it was one I enjoyed. I like the track a lot, Max said he hopes never to come back but I think like Imola it should be made a permanent event on the calendar. Only a few days to wait until Barcelona for the next one and hopefully things will be just as close there.
My F1 talk 