Portuguese GP – Friday Round Up: Bottas Tops Both Sessions After Two Dramatic Red Flags in FP2

It’s another race weekend in Formula 1 once again, and this time the travelling circus has pitched it’s tents at the glorious Algarve International Circuit in Portugal.

Being the first Friday practice running we’ve seen since Russia after weather-related chaos hit the Nürburgring last time out, today’s action certainly did not disappoint as viewers were treated to drama throughout both sessions.

Amidst it all though, it was Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team’s Valtteri Bottas who prevailed and took the fastest time in both Free Practice One and Free Practice Two – retaining his rather flippant title of the ‘Friday World Champion’.

The circuit proved difficult for many drivers throughout the day, and we saw a handful of spins and incidents – not to mention a record sixty five lap times being deleted in the first session alone.

During morning running, drivers were aiming to test the track and learn all the intricacies of the difficult layout.

Almost all twenty drivers experienced either a trip across the gravel or a pirouette whilst finding the limits. Two notable spins were that of Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen, and the latter of the two was one of many to report the lack of grip on the recently resurfaced track.

On the weekend they announced their departure from Haas F1 Team at the end of 2020, Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen experienced a relatively promising first session given the team’s current circumstances.

Magnussen finished fourteenth and ahead of Lance Stroll. Stroll’s replacement for last weekend Nico Hülkenberg also made an appearance in the morning – albeit trackside only.

In FP1, Bottas led teammate Lewis Hamilton by three tenths, with Verstappen, Leclerc, Alexander Albon and Carlos Sainz Jr. completing the top five.

Free Practice One Classified Leaderboard:

1	77	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:18.410		35
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:18.749	0.339s	35
3	33	Max Verstappen	NED	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	1:19.191	0.781s	32
4	16	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1:19.309	0.899s	33
5	23	Alexander Albon	THA	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	1:19.365	0.955s	34
6	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	ESP	McLaren F1 Team	1:19.441	1.031s	42
7	11	Sergio Pérez	MEX	BWT Racing Point Formula One Team	1:19.907	1.497s	31
8	7	Kimi Räikkönen	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing	1:19.954	1.544s	35
9	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	Renault DP World F1 Team	1:20.058	1.648s	27
10	10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1:20.124	1.714s	29
11	5	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Scuderia Ferrari	1:20.200	1.790s	37
12	4	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1:20.207	1.868s	29
13	26	Daniil Kvyat	RUS	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1:20.278	1.868s	32
14	20	Kevin Magnussen	DEN	Haas F1 Team	1:20.846	2.436s	28
15	18	Lance Stroll	CAN	BWT Racing Point Formula One Team	1:20.954	2.544s	32
16	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ITA	Alfa Romeo Racing	1:21.009	2.599s	35
17	8	Romain Grosjean	FRA	Haas F1 Team	1:21.169	2.759s	31
18	63	George Russell	GBR	Williams Racing	1:21.374	2.964s	31
19	31	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Renault DP World F1 Team	1:21.673	3.263s	31
20	6	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1:22.054	3.644s	34

But even after a multitude of incidents in the morning, Free Practice Two a few hours later proved to be far more exciting.

The first portion of the session was used to test the prototype tyres for next year, and so drivers and teams had to squeeze more than usual into the later stages of the afternoon running. Because of this, almost all drivers were on-circuit for the majority of their allocated time – leading to a few strange incidents.

Around an hour into the session, we saw the first red flag of the day after newly-inaugurated race winner Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri AT01 unexpectedly burst into flames towards the end of sector two.

The Frenchman was unharmed as he leapt out amidst the blaze, but the car was ruined and he will subsequently require an engine replacement after the failure.

As well as this, a second red flag was brought out after an unexpected crash between Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll.

Around the final few corners of the circuit, Verstappen let a flying Stroll past as the Canadian was on a timed lap. The Dutchman then opened DRS a few corners later on the main straight in an effort to try and re-overtake Stroll, who had just initiated a cooldown lap, so he could start his own flyer but the Racing Point driver did not yield into turn one and the pair collided spectacularly.

Stroll’s car was left beached, while a furious Verstappen managed to return to the pits.

The session concluded with a quiet ten minutes after the restart, and once more the Finn was on top. Bottas led from Verstappen, and a quick Lando Norris completed the top three. Charles Leclerc also did a standout job, finishing in the top five both times on Friday.

Free Practice Two Classified Leaderboard:

Pos	#	Driver	Nat.	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	77	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:17.940		32
2	33	Max Verstappen	NED	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	1:18.535	0.595s	34
3	4	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1:18.743	0.803s	35
4	16	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1:18.838	0.898s	34
5	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	ESP	McLaren F1 Team	1:19.113	1.173s	32
6	5	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Scuderia Ferrari	1:19.175	1.235s	34
7	10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1:19.178	1.238s	26
8	44	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:19.308	1.368s	27
9	31	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Renault DP World F1 Team	1:19.496	1.556s	32
10	23	Alexander Albon	THA	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	1:19.643	1.703s	37
11	63	George Russell	GBR	Williams Racing	1:19.821	1.881s	33
12	11	Sergio Pérez	MEX	BWT Racing Point Formula One Team	1:19.901	1.961s	34
13	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	Renault DP World F1 Team	1:19.987	2.047s	28
14	6	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1:20.465	2.525s	33
15	7	Kimi Räikkönen	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing	1:20.490	2.550s	34
16	20	Kevin Magnussen	DEN	Haas F1 Team	1:20.680	2.740s	29
17	26	Daniil Kvyat	RUS	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1:20.729	2.789s	33
18	8	Romain Grosjean	FRA	Haas F1 Team	1:20.867	2.927s	32
19	18	Lance Stroll	CAN	BWT Racing Point Formula One Team	1:20.983	3.043s	26
20	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ITA	Alfa Romeo Racing	1:21.396	3.456s	34

Free practice Three begins at 11:00 BST tomorrow at the Algarve track.