Supreme Hamilton eases to Portuguese Grand Prix victory

The world champion extends his lead over Max Verstappen
Lewis Hamilton wins in PortugalLewis Hamilton wins in Portugal
Lewis Hamilton wins in Portugal

Lewis Hamilton cruised to his second win of the season to win the Portuguese Grand Prix on Sunday to extend his championship lead.

Despite dropping to third after an early safety car behind team-mate Valtteri Bottas and title rival Max Verstappen But passing the pair, both into the first corner, he barely put a foot wrong once in the lead to claim his 97th career win.

Verstappen caught Bottas on the hop when the Finn emerged from the pits but wasn't able to make a dent into Hamilton's advantage, stopping for a second time late on for new tyres to set the fastest lap but it was deleted for track limits.

Bottas and Verstappen battled it out behind HamiltonBottas and Verstappen battled it out behind Hamilton
Bottas and Verstappen battled it out behind Hamilton

Bottas came home third after losing touch with the Red Bull man, but get the bonus point for fastest lap.

Hamilton said: "That was such a tough race, physically and mentally. It was so windy so it was easy to put a foot wrong.

"Losing out at the restart wasn't good, but max made a mistake on his lap and it was perfect for me to make the move. And I had to make a move on Valtteri quickly before the tyres went off so it was just in time.

"There are improvements we can make, today wasn't perfect but we'll do what we can to turn over those stones."

"It was pretty decent," said Verstappen. "I had a good restart but in the end we lacked race pace overall. Lewis got by again but once we settled in second, you could see we were lacking in pace.

"This was an odd weekend in terms of grip. We weren't on top of it here but we'll move on to Barcelona."

Bottas added: "It was a tricky day today, the first stint I just didn't have any pace. I had a bit of a sensor issue in the second stint but could catch Max.

"Overall we had a strong package today. It's good points."

Sergio Perez brought home good points for Red Bull in fourth but was never really in contention for the podium fight.

Lando Norris continued his excellent start to the season to claim fifth spot in the McLaren, ahead of Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari, Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso in the Alpines, Daniel Ricciardo recovered brilliantly to claim ninth from 16th on the grid, with Pierre Gasly claiming the final point for Alpha Tauri.