Lewis Hamilton adds to his amazing career, wins the Portuguese Grand Prix, breaking Michael Schumacher’s all-time victory record.
PORTIMAO, Portugal—Sunday, October 25th—Many people never see a record broken in their lifetimes–either in person or via technology. On Sunday, at the Autodromo Internacional Do Algarve in Portugal, Lewis Hamilton took his 92nd and record-breaking win. He did it with a dominating 25-and-half-second victory over teammate Valtteri Bottas. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was third.
Lewis Hamilton: I could only ever have dreamed of being where I am today. I didn’t have a magic ball when I chose to come to this team and partner with these great people, but here I am. Everything we do together–we are all rowing in the same direction, and that’s why we’re doing what we’re doing.
Hamilton took the lead from Bottas on the 20th lap and never looked back, as he lapped the field all the way through to Charles Leclerc in his Ferrari, who finished the race in fourth. From lap 37, when Hamilton had only an eight-second lead, Hamilton increased it, even more, when Bottas experienced no grip on his last set of tires but managed to hold off Verstappen for second.
Hamilton now leads with the most wins in a Grand Prix career, beating the record of Michael Schumacher, who achieved this back in the late 2000s in his Ferrari.
Out of the 20 cars that began this race on this new track for Formula 1, only Canadian Lance Stroll retired from the race (12 laps to go) with floor damage issues in his Racing Point entry.
Pierre Gasly came back late to finish fifth in his Alpha Tauri, while Carlos Sainz Jr. (who led for a couple of laps early in the race) took sixth in his McLaren. Racing Point’s Sergio Perez, who was struck by Verstappen on the opening lap, recovered and ended up finishing seventh just ahead of the Renault duo of Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo, who were eighth and ninth, respectively. Sebastian Vettel was tenth in his Ferrari.
Expecting this record to be broken, Hamilton’s family was present at the race–his dog included–to celebrate his accomplishment.
“My dad’s here, my step mum Linda, and Roscoe, my dog,” Hamilton said afterward. “It is going to take some time for it to sink in fully. I was still pushing flat out as I came across the line. I can’t find the words at the moment.”
Hamilton now holds a 77 point lead over Bottas going into next week’s race at Imola, Italy.
