@ValtteriBottas heads @RedBullRacing pairing in #PortugueseGP FP1 session. #F1

Valtteri Bottas has topped the Portuguese GP FP1 session ahead of Red Bull pairing Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez as the top three were covered by 0.200 seconds.

Bottas and Verstappen traded fastest laps throughout the hour session, whilst the former’s Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton finished fifth after complaining of a balance problem in the earlier stages and was unable to string together a solid flyer on the C3 softer compounds towards the end.

When FP1 began, Bottas was first to hit the Portimao circuit, followed by Red Bull’s Perez, who was initially running a higher rake on his Honda-powered RB16B racer.

Bottas posted the early benchmark of a 1:23.778 on the C1 white side-walled harder rubber, which the majority of the field used for the opening 30 minutes.

The smooth, low grip surface saw the drivers finding time the longer their stints were, with the Finn then lowering the best time to a 1:22.938.

Hamilton then moved to the top with a 1:22.772, also on the harder compounds, but was soon back into the pits as the Briton complained that the balance of his F1 W12 was “undriveable” and the Brackley-based outfit had to make some “serious changes”.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz then went quickest in the opening ten minutes, before Bottas reclaimed P1 with a 1:21.829, which brought the Finns’ initial stint to an end.

10 minutes later, McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo hit top spot with a 1:21.821, before Verstappen put in his first hot lap effort just after the 20 minute mark, having started the session later than the rest.

Verstappen went to the top of the time-sheets on a 1:21.053 – which would have been faster had the Dutchman not had to catch the rear of his RB16B snapping left whilst running through the long, downhill turn 14 right hand corner – where Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc ran out in the wide run-off area during the earlier stages of the session.

Bottas took back P1 with a 120.506 when he emerged again on the hards, which remained the benchmark over the session’s midpoint before Verstappen lowered it twice, first setting a 1:20.500 then a 1:20.318 on consecutive runs – despite the Red Bull driver complaining of struggles at the tight turn three right hander.

Moments after this, Bottas put on a set of softs and quickly snatched the top of the time-sheets with a 1:20.221, where he lost time to Verstappen in the second sector.

Bottas fixed his next effort and lowered the benchmark again to a 1:20.088, before cracking into the 1:19’s on the next flyer, posting a 1:19.648.

As the session entered the final ten minutes, Verstappen also put on a set of the red-branded C3 softs. but ahead of his flying effort, he complained of severe tyre vibrations.

The Milton Keynes-based squad offered to bring the Dutchman in for safety grounds, but Verstappen joked that he would “just visit the dentist after the weekend” and continued on his hot lap.

Despite the problems, Verstappen set purple sectors in the first two of the flyer, but lost time to Bottas in the third and ended up 0.025 seconds off the Finn.

Perez slotted into third place and was 0.198 seconds adrift of Bottas’ Portuguese GP FP1 benchmark time, with Leclerc also improving at the end to go fourth.

Hamilton’s session finished with several attempts at a hot lap on the softer compounds, where he would regularly post the quickest time in sector one before losing time in the second and then forcing to abandon his efforts.

The Briton therefore wound up 0.319 seconds off team-mate Bottas’ Portuguese GP FP1 time-topping lap, with Hamilton’s best time coming in a 1:19.967.

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was sixth and in-front of Williams Racing’s George Russell who took seventh.

McLaren’s Lando Norris ended FP1 in eighth and ahead of former team-mate Sainz who finished FP1 ninth, whilst Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon completed the top ten.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll came in 11th place on the time-sheets, in-front of McLaren’s Ricciardo who was 12th and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda who took 13th.

Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso was 14th quickest and in-front of former 2014 Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen who placed 15th in his Alfa.

Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel ended opening practice 16th and provided a laugh in the session at the halfway point where we parked up at the McLaren garage, where the German had used to be stopping back in 2020 for Ferrari, before rolling up to his Aston Martin pit and apologised to his team.

Alfa Romeo Racing’s Callum Ilott, filling in for regular Antonio Giovinazzi in FP1, finished 17th and ahead of Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher who took 18th.

Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi and Haas F1 Team’s Nikita Mazepin brought up the rear in 19th and last respectively.

You can read the full Formula 1 Heineken Grande Premio De Portugal 2021 Free Practice 1 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1066/portugal/practice-1.html

#Formula1 @Heineken Grande Premio De Portugal 2021 Preview. #F1 #PortugueseGP