2021 F1 Round 3 – Portuguese GP FP1: Bottas fastest, Red Bull pair close behind as rookie Ilott makes stand-in debut

The Portuguese Grand Prix, round three of the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship, got under way at the Algarve International Circuit on the evening of April 30 (China Standard Time, UTC+8). Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas topped the opening practice session with a lap of 1:19.648.

Bottas completed 31 laps without trouble. Red Bull made a good start with both cars as the team chased back-to-back wins after its Imola victory: Max Verstappen was second, 0.025 seconds behind, and Sergio Pérez third, 0.198 seconds adrift.

Verstappen switched to soft tyres for a flying lap in the closing stages, complaining: “The vibrations are so bad it feels like there’s a flat spot. It’s shaking so much I don’t even know where to steer.” Even so, he closed in on Bottas with the fastest first and second sector times of the session, showing considerable potential.

At the Algarve circuit, where Mercedes had shown dominant pace last year, Red Bull brought upgrades focused on the floor edges. Verstappen ran the new floor and Pérez the old one for comparison testing.

At fellow Honda-powered team AlphaTauri, the in-form Pierre Gasly was sixth, 0.8 seconds behind Verstappen. Yuki Tsunoda, who said he was “not expecting much” at an unfamiliar circuit, finished 13th, 0.646 seconds behind his team-mate.

Ferrari made a good start: Charles Leclerc was fourth, ahead of reigning champion Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) in fifth, while Carlos Sainz was ninth, putting both cars in the top ten.

The remaining three places in the top ten went to Williams’ George Russell (seventh), McLaren’s Lando Norris (eighth) and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon (tenth).

At Alfa Romeo, British rising star Callum Ilott stood in for Antonio Giovinazzi and made his long-awaited Grand Prix weekend debut. He impressed in 17th, 0.425 seconds behind his team-mate Kimi Räikkönen (15th).

It was a sunny Friday morning at the Algarve, and the session began in dry conditions with an air temperature of 17°C and a track temperature of 31°C. Pirelli brought the three hardest compounds in its range, C1 to C3, for this round, and every team except Haas used the soft and hard compounds to build up mileage.

The track surface, relaid before the event, still offered little grip. Everyone struggled to bring the tyres up to operating temperature, significantly widening the gaps between those who could get them into the right operating window and those who could not.

Second practice took place at the same circuit at 10 p.m. China Standard Time (UTC+8) on April 30.