Valtteri Bottas topped a dramatic opening day of Portuguese Grand Prix practice at Algarve International Circuit on Friday, which included a fire for Pierre Gasly, and Max Verstappen clashing with Lance Stroll at high speed.
In the first practice session, Bottas was over three tenths of a second clear of Hamilton, the Mercedes duo having a further four tenths advantage over Red Bull’s Verstappen, who suffered an early spin.
Charles Leclerc was fourth fastest for Ferrari, just lapping quicker than the second Red Bull of Alexander Albon and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz. Racing Point’s Sergio Perez was seventh fastest, ahead of an impressive Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo). Sixty-five laptimes were deleted in this session due to track limits infringements.
In FP2, the first 30 minutes was used as a Pirelli tyre test, all using a 2021 prototype hard compound. Sainz suffered an early spin, as did Perez, while Haas’s Romain Grosjean took a trip through the gravel.
Bottas set the benchmark on the soft tyres at 1m17.940s, just before a red flag when Gasly’s AlphaTauri burst into flames at Turn 13. He jumped out unharmed.
After the session restarted, with a lot of cars immediately going out on track, Verstappen and Stroll collided at the 180mph Turn 1 – sending Stroll, who was going for a second fast lap, spinning into the gravel. That caused a second red flag.
Bottas stayed on top, half a second clear of Verstappen, with McLaren’s Lando Norris jumping up to third in the closing seconds. Leclerc was fourth, ahead of Sainz – another late improver – and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. Gasly was seventh, ahead of Hamilton – who didn’t get a decent soft-tyre run.
F1 Portuguese Grand Prix Free Practice 1 results
| Cla | Driver | Chassis | Engine | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | km/h | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Valtteri Bottas |  | Mercedes | Mercedes | 35 | 1’18.410 | 215.054 | ||
| 2 |  Lewis Hamilton |  | Mercedes | Mercedes | 35 | 1’18.749 | 0.339 | 0.339 | 214.128 |
| 3 |  Max Verstappen |  | Red Bull | Honda | 32 | 1’19.191 | 0.781 | 0.442 | 212.933 |
| 4 |  Charles Leclerc |  | Ferrari | Ferrari | 33 | 1’19.309 | 0.899 | 0.118 | 212.616 |
| 5 |  Alex Albon |  | Red Bull | Honda | 34 | 1’19.365 | 0.955 | 0.056 | 212.466 |
| 6 |  Carlos Sainz Jr. |  | McLaren | Renault | 42 | 1’19.441 | 1.031 | 0.076 | 212.263 |
| 7 |  Sergio Perez |  | Racing Point | Mercedes | 31 | 1’19.907 | 1.497 | 0.466 | 211.025 |
| 8 | Kimi Raikkonen |  | Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | 34 | 1’19.954 | 1.544 | 0.047 | 210.901 |
| 9 |  Daniel Ricciardo |  | Renault | Renault | 27 | 1’20.058 | 1.648 | 0.104 | 210.627 |
| 10 |  Pierre Gasly |  | AlphaTauri | Honda | 29 | 1’20.124 | 1.714 | 0.066 | 210.453 |
| 11 |  Sebastian Vettel |  | Ferrari | Ferrari | 37 | 1’20.200 | 1.790 | 0.076 | 210.254 |
| 12 | Lando Norris |  | McLaren | Renault | 29 | 1’20.207 | 1.797 | 0.007 | 210.236 |
| 13 |  Daniil Kvyat |  | AlphaTauri | Honda | 32 | 1’20.278 | 1.868 | 0.071 | 210.050 |
| 14 |  Kevin Magnussen |  | Haas | Ferrari | 28 | 1’20.846 | 2.436 | 0.568 | 208.574 |
| 15 |  Lance Stroll |  | Racing Point | Mercedes | 32 | 1’20.954 | 2.544 | 0.108 | 208.296 |
| 16 |  Antonio Giovinazzi |  | Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | 35 | 1’21.009 | 2.599 | 0.055 | 208.154 |
| 17 | Romain Grosjean |  | Haas | Ferrari | 31 | 1’21.169 | 2.759 | 0.160 | 207.744 |
| 18 | George Russell |  | Williams | Mercedes | 31 | 1’21.374 | 2.964 | 0.205 | 207.220 |
| 19 | Esteban Ocon |  | Renault | Renault | 31 | 1’21.673 | 3.263 | 0.299 | 206.462 |
| 20 | Nicholas Latifi |  | Williams | Mercedes | 34 | 1’22.054 | 3.644 | 0.381 | 205.503 |
| View full results |
F1 Portuguese Grand Prix Free Practice 2 results
| Cla | Driver | Chassis | Engine | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | km/h | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valtteri Bottas | | Mercedes | Mercedes | 32 | 1’17.940 | 216.351 | ||
| 2 | Max Verstappen |  | Red Bull | Honda | 34 | 1’18.535 | 0.595 | 0.595 | 214.711 |
| 3 | Lando Norris |  | McLaren | Renault | 35 | 1’18.743 | 0.803 | 0.208 | 214.144 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | | Ferrari | Ferrari | 34 | 1’18.838 | 0.898 | 0.095 | 213.886 |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz Jr. |  | McLaren | Renault | 32 | 1’19.113 | 1.173 | 0.275 | 213.143 |
| 6 | Sebastian Vettel | | Ferrari | Ferrari | 34 | 1’19.175 | 1.235 | 0.062 | 212.976 |
| 7 | Pierre Gasly |  | AlphaTauri | Honda | 26 | 1’19.178 | 1.238 | 0.003 | 212.968 |
| 8 | Lewis Hamilton |  | Mercedes | Mercedes | 27 | 1’19.308 | 1.368 | 0.130 | 212.619 |
| 9 | Esteban Ocon |  | Renault | Renault | 32 | 1’19.496 | 1.556 | 0.188 | 212.116 |
| 10 | Alex Albon |  | Red Bull | Honda | 37 | 1’19.643 | 1.703 | 0.147 | 211.724 |
| 11 | George Russell | | Williams | Mercedes | 33 | 1’19.821 | 1.881 | 0.178 | 211.252 |
| 12 | Sergio Perez |  | Racing Point | Mercedes | 34 | 1’19.901 | 1.961 | 0.080 | 211.041 |
| 13 | Daniel Ricciardo |  | Renault | Renault | 28 | 1’19.987 | 2.047 | 0.086 | 210.814 |
| 14 | Nicholas Latifi | | Williams | Mercedes | 33 | 1’20.465 | 2.525 | 0.478 | 209.561 |
| 15 | Kimi Raikkonen |  | Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | 34 | 1’20.490 | 2.550 | 0.025 | 209.496 |
| 16 | Kevin Magnussen |  | Haas | Ferrari | 29 | 1’20.680 | 2.740 | 0.190 | 209.003 |
| 17 | Daniil Kvyat | | AlphaTauri | Honda | 33 | 1’20.729 | 2.789 | 0.049 | 208.876 |
| 18 | Romain Grosjean |  | Haas | Ferrari | 32 | 1’20.867 | 2.927 | 0.138 | 208.520 |
| 19 | Lance Stroll |  | Racing Point | Mercedes | 26 | 1’20.983 | 3.043 | 0.116 | 208.221 |
| 20 | Antonio Giovinazzi | | Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | 34 | 1’21.396 | 3.456 | 0.413 | 207.164 |
| View full results |
F1 Portuguese Grand Prix Free Practice as it happened
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