Racetrackmasters

Max Verstappen lost the fastest lap point for the Portuguese GP because he gained an advantage – a point – by running wide at Turn 14. Running five seconds behind race leader Lewis Hamilton in the closing laps at the Algarve circuit, Verstappen and Red Bull conceded defeat and, with the bigger picture in mind, went for the fastest lap point. Verstappen went purple, putting in a 1:19.849. He crossed the line in second place, runner-up to Hamilton with Valtteri Bottas finishing third. Moments later, though, Verstappen was informed that his lap time had been deleted for exceeding the track limits at Turn 14. The point went to Bottas. Verstappen was baffled, saying: That’s a bit odd because they were not checking track limits in 14, but whatever.” Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko was clear in his criticism of the call. “Now we’ve lost the victory, fastest lap and pole position,” he told Sky Germany. “I hope that’s the end of it. Something has to change. Either you make a boundary with kerbs or you make gravel or something. If you go out, there’s an automatic penalty. “Norris overtook Perez, went over with all four wheels and there were no consequences. So it’s not consistent, and that’s not racing when you juggle the rules like that.” Masi, though, says it was the right decision to delete Verstappen’s time as that point would have been an “advantage”. “As per the event notes and following a review of what happened in Friday in particular, Turn 14 was being used far more – it wasn’t an issue in 2020 but became one in 2021,” Masi explained. “So as a result I gave all the drivers the latitude to use the red and white kerb in a manner similar to Turn 5. “They were told if they gained a lasting advantage out of reach of those [kerbs], being overtaking a car, faster in a mini-sector, whatever it may have been, that it will be looked at. “And having looked at it post-race it was very clear Max was off-track and faster in that mini-sector than anyone and set the fastest lap of the race which is a World Championship point.” The notes Masi refers to were updated on Saturday to include that the “track limits at the exit of Turn 14 are defined as when no part of the car remains in contact with the red and white kerb.” It added that “drivers must make every reasonable effort to use the track at all times and may not leave the track without a justifiable reason.” Verstappen left Portugal trailing Hamilton by eight points in the championship fight.

Red Bull driver programme chief Helmut Marko wants track limits addressed after both of his drivers were impacted at Portimao. Max Verstappen set the fastest time during the shootout for pole at the Portuguese Grand Prix but due to breaching track limits, that time was wiped which meant he instead lined up P3 behind both Mercedes. Then come race day, Verstappen set the fastest lap on his final tour of the circuit, only to lose that and the bonus point that comes with it for again exceeding track limits, this time at Turn 14. Sergio Perez was also affected in the other Red Bull as McLaren’s Lando Norris appeared to leave the track to pass the Mexican during the race, but there was no action from the stewards. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner called the situation in Portimao “frustrating” due to the inconsistency in how track limits were policed, and Marko has now joined the argument in wanting to see changes made, branding the decision to deny Verstappen the fastest lap as “annoying”. Marko also pointed out that along with the stewards’ call in Bahrain, that being the order for Verstappen to yield the lead to Lewis Hamilton, as he left the track to make the pass at Turn 4, Red Bull have now been denied every major honour in 2021 due to track limits. “Now we’ve lost the victory, fastest lap and pole position,” Marko said in conversation with Sky Germany. “All good things come in threes. I hope that’s the end of it. Something has to change. Either you make a boundary with kerbs or you make gravel or something. If you go out, there’s an automatic penalty. “[Lando] Norris overtook [Sergio] Perez, went over with all four wheels and there were no consequences. So it’s not consistent, and that’s not racing when you juggle the rules like that.” Perez explained that he did not defend his position with much force against Norris in Portimao because the McLaren driver had clearly gone off the track, and so he thought the call would come for the position to be returned. “I looked at my mirrors and I thought Lando was totally off the track limits,” he said. “Therefore, I didn’t fight the position hard enough, thinking he would give me back the place, but I probably misjudged that one. “It took me a couple of laps to get past Lando and that created the gap to the leaders. I was basically out of the race by then.”

Max Verstappen was bewildered by the steward’s decision to delete his fastest lap of the race which cost him one point in the championship. Verstappen pitted with two laps for the soft tyres before setting the quickest lap of the Grand Prix on the last lap but he went wide at Turn 14 which is one of the corners the stewards have been monitoring all weekend. This gifted Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas the extra point in Portimao. “That’s a bit odd but whatever,” said Verstappen after the race when told he had his laptime deleted. Verstappen reckons Red Bull lacked the outright speed against Mercedes in Portugal and was pleased to beat one of the Silver Arrows. “It was pretty decent,” added Verstappen. “I had a good restart and then I tried to put the pressure on Valtteri but in the end We just lacked a little bit of pace overall. “Lewis got by again and after the pitstop once we settled in second you could clearly see we lacked a bit of pace. In general it was a bit of an odd weekend.”

Despite starting second on the grid and being passed by Max Verstappen in the early stages of the race, Lewis Hamilton delivered a stern message to his title rival to claim the Portuguese Grand Prix. The Brit drove relatively undisturbed after getting past his Red Bull rival and teammate Valtteri Bottas, with his biggest troubles coming from a lack of grip from the Pirelli tyres. Although Hamilton made it clear more than once on the radio that he wasn’t all that happy with his tyres, the Mercedes star extended his lead at the front by recording fast lap after fast lap. In the end Verstappen will be happy to have finished second, as he never really put his title rival under threat in the closing stages of the race. While it means Hamilton extends his lead in the standings the Dutchman limited the damage as best he could by finishing ahead of Bottas, who took third. Sergio Perez and Lando Norris rounded out the top five. Mercedes surged off the grid to keep their position over Verstappen, while Perez was passed by Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari for fourth as the Mexican struggled for grip. The relative calm ended after just one lap as Kimi Raikkonen clipped teammate Antonio Giovinazzi’s left rear tyre down the front straight, causing the loss of his front wing and forcing the Finn to retire. As a result the safety car was brought out to clean up the debris on track. The action resumed on Lap 7 with Verstappen getting the best of Hamilton around the outside of Turn 1, snatching second place from his championship rival. While it looked as though the Dutchman would then go and challenge Bottas for the lead, a mistake in the final corner a few laps later opened the door for Hamilton to retake second place heading into the first corner. Elsewhere Norris and Perez made their way past Sainz to take fourth and fifth, with Charles Leclerc getting past Esteban Ocon for seventh. Daniel Ricciardo, who started 16th, quickly made his way up to 11th just behind Sebastian Vettel. Perez eventually found his way past Norris for fourth as the leading trio of Bottas, Hamilton and Verstappen started to break away from the rest of the pack, with the Finn controlling the pace. That all changed on Lap 20 as Hamilton played his angles right and surged past a defending Bottas around the outside of Turn 1. It was all the more impressive considering the Brit told Mercedes on the radio that his tyres were shot, before clocking a 1:21.995 on Lap 28 – the fastest lap up to that point. Further down the grid Leclerc began to show good pace after switching to hard tyres, closing up on teammate Sainz for ninth as several drivers in the middle of the pack, including the front three, continued to put off their pit stops. Verstappen was the first to blink at the end of Lap 35, switching to hard tyres with Bottas coming in the following lap. The Finn initially came out in front, but on cold tyres he was no match for the charging Dutchman who moved past the Mercedes driver. Hamilton eventually pitted as well, maintaining his gap over Verstappen with Perez in P1 having not pitted yet. Perez stayed out longer than the top three, eventually giving way to Hamilton before pitting and rejoining in fourth as the closing stages of the race played out with the top three miles ahead of the Mexican. Further down the grid Norris stayed in front of Leclerc to take fifth, while Ocon – who finished seventh – was joined in the points by teammate Fernando Alonso, who worked his way through the field to finish eighth after a late pass on the fading Sainz, who finished outside the points after being passed by Ricciardo and Pierre Gasly in the closing stages. In the end there was no denying Hamilton from his 97th career victory to sit eight points clear of Verstappen in the drivers’ standings. Position No. Driver Car 1 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Honda 3 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 4 11 Sergio Perez Red Bull-Honda 5 4 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 6 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 7 31 Esteban Ocon Alpine-Renault 8 14 Fernando Alonso Alpine-Renault 9 3 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren-Mercedes 10 10 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri-Honda 11 55 Carlos Sainz Jnr Ferrari 12 99 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 13 5 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin-Mercedes 14 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Mercedes 15 22 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri-Honda 16 63 George Russell Williams-Mercedes 17 47 Mick Schumacher Haas-Ferrari 18 6 Nicholas Latifi Williams-Mercedes 19 9 Nikita Mazepin Haas-Ferrari 20 7 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo-Ferrari

Kimi Raikkonen’s Portuguese Grand Prix lasted just one lap after he collided with his team mate on the main straight at Portimao. The Finn, who had started the race 15th on the grid, was running behind Antonio Giovinazzi when he appeared to misjudge the effect of the tow from his team mate’s Alfa Romeo car, and hit the Italian’s back left tyre with his front wing. The impact caused debris to be showered across the track as the remains of the wing became lodged underneath Raikkonen’s car and he was unable to stop himself from running off the track, into the gravel trap, and out of the race. Giovinazzi was unaffected and was able to continue. The Safety Car was deployed to allow the marshals to recover the car and debris on the main straight, before the racing resumed, with Valtteri Bottas leading for Mercedes.

Alfa Romeo could have some points coming their way after winning the right to appeal Kimi Raikkonen’s penalty at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Raikkonen saw P9 taken away from him after he had initially spun behind the Safety Car at Turn 3 in Imola as drivers prepared for a rolling race restart, but hesitation from the team meant that Raikkonen did not retake his original position before the first safety car line. That meant that he was then required to take the restart from the pit lane, something which the Finn did not do, leading to a post-race 30-second time penalty. Alfa Romeo had asked for clarification from the race director shortly after Raikkonen’s spin but received no response prior to the race resuming, while in issuing the penalty the stewards acknowledged the confusion of the regulations but had no choice other than to issue the mandatory penalty. The regulations have been amended to avoid any future incidents such as Raikkonen’s but they have also deemed Alfa Romeo’s right to appeal admissible because full information on what the right course of action would be was not available at the time. The FIA said: “Subsequent to the decision and as part of this present hearing, the Stewards have discovered that the specific cases that they referred to were not following a Red Flag. “While this was only one element among many considered by the Stewards, this information was unavailable to the Competitor at the time of the original decision and was a part of the discussion by the Stewards and is therefore deemed significant and relevant.” The full appeal will be heard prior to the Portuguese Grand Prix.

Valtteri Bottas successfully claimed pole position from Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes front-row lock-out for Sunday’s Portuguese Grand Prix at Portimão. The Finn’s best Q3 time of 1:18.348s was just 0.007s quicker than Hamilton, while the two Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were several tenths off the pace as they claimed the second row of the grid. Carlos Sainz was the highest-placed Ferrari in fifth ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and McLaren’s Lando Norris, after a shock early elimination for Daniel Ricciardo who missed the cut at the end of Q1. Ahead of the start of qualifying at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, there was heightened activity at the Mercedes garage as mechanics completed their work reassembling Valtteri Bottas’ car. Meanwhile their McLaren counterparts had themselves only just finished addressing an ECU issue on Lando Norris’ MCL35M. However everyone was ready for action when the lights went green at the end of pit lane for the start of qualifying in bright, breezy and rather cool conditions. Haas’ Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin led the way out, followed by the two McLarens on medium tyres, including Norris. Mazepin set the first time of the session which was soon bumped off the top spot by Norris and then by Lance Stroll and Antonio Giovinazzi. The first serious run came from Carlos Sainz with a lap of 1:19.480s, while his Ferrari team mate Charles Leclerc had his first lap time deleted for exceeding track limits. His next was nonetheless good enough for second place, but he was soon pushed aside again by a sequence of flying laps from Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen and the Alpines of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon. After an extra warm-up lap, Lewis Hamilton made his presence felt by going top with just under ten minutes on the clock with a time of 1:18.726s. That was half a second quicker than Sainz but his lap was also then deleted, allowing Sainz to reclaim top honours for a few seconds before Bottas went a tenth faster. Hamilton played it safe with his next run which was good enough for sixth place behind the two Red Bulls of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen. Perez subsequently ran into the gravel at turn 4 but was able to extricate himself, shortly after Alonso had also briefly spun at the same corner as a result of the blustery tailwind conditions. With time running out, the bottom five consisted of the two Haas drivers (Schumacher and Mazepin) and both Williams (George Russell and Nicholas Latifi), together with AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, while Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel was on the bubble. There was still plenty of time for them to punch in one final effort, and Vettel duly leapt up to fourth place and safety just as Norris was finally able to find some pace to move to the top ahead of Bottas. Bottas and Hamilton both improved on their final Q1 runs to straddle Norris in first and third respectively, with Ocon also improving to fourth ahead of Sainz, Perez, Leclerc, Vettel, Giovinazzi and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly. Tsunoda battled his way to safety in 12th and Russell scraped through in 15th by four hundredths, but a late improvement for Ocon had the knock-on effect of producing a shock elimination for Daniel Ricciardo in the second McLaren. Stroll also found himself in the drop zone alongside Latifi, Schumacher and Mazepin as the dust settled. When the session resumed, everyone hit the track with most sporting the medium compound with the notable exception of Norris, Gasly and Tsunoda. Sainz set the early benchmark with a time of 1:19.560s which was soon bettered by Leclerc. Verstappen was a third of a second quicker still, and then it was the Mercedes drivers’ turn to play their hand with Hamilton finding a totally new gear with a time of 1:17.968s, almost half a second quicker than Bottas. Meanwhile Norris used his soft tyres to slot into third place ahead of Ocon, Perez, Vettel and Verstappen. While the medium compound was clearly the best tyres to stat the race on, the soft compound was giving other drivers such as Norris such an advantage that Ferrari and even Red Bull were struggling for pace and now risked possibly missing the cut if they stuck to the same strategy. Even Hamilton and Bottas made a precautionary change to the red-walled tyres before their final runs, albeit with the hope of aborting their runs should they not be needed. Only Leclerc stayed on the mediums and he was soon shuffled back by a better effort from the soft-shod Gasly, but the Monegasque then countered with a better lap of his own to ensure safe passage in sixth place. The final laps flew thick and fast. Hamilton, Bottas and Norris held on to the top spots ahead of Ocon with Verstappen also safely through ahead of the two Ferraris, and Perez cutting it a little fine in eighth ahead of Vettel and Gasly. Just missing out was Russell despite a much improved final run leaving him in 11th place on the Sunday’s grid, with Giovinazzi, Alonso, Tsunoda and Raikkonen also eliminated. As the final round of qualifying got underway, most of the drivers opted for an extra warm-up lap on their soft tyres. However Verstappen was straight on it and looked set to take provisional pole, only to end up surviving a scary oversteer moment at turn 4 that cost him his lap time for straying outside the track limits. That allowed Bottas to take the top spot by 1:18.348s by seven thousandths of a second from Hamilton, with Perez third ahead of Sainz, Norris and Leclerc. As the cars came out for their final runs, Hamilton changed to the medium tyres that had worked so well for him in Q2. Bottas followed his team mate’s lead, while everyone else was on the soft compound. Aware that Verstappen hadn’t posted a time yet, the McLaren pit wall cheekily advised Norris “Don’t do…

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen set two laps quick enough for top spot during final practice for Formula 1’s Portuguese Grand Prix. Verstappen finished the one-hour session with a best time of 1:18.489s to finish 0.236s clear of title rival Lewis Hamilton at Portimao. Valtteri Bottas finished in third position for Mercedes while Red Bull’s Sergio Perez took fourth, as Formula 1’s leading two teams grabbed the top positions. Alpine caught the eye through Friday practice and maintained that speed through Saturday lunchtime’s session. While Fernando Alonso had a lap time deleted for exceeding track limits, running wide at Turn 1, Esteban Ocon placed fifth overall. Ocon’s time left him ahead of Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz while Lando Norris was the lead McLaren driver in eighth position. AlphaTauri fared better than its Friday display, with Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda ninth and 11th respectively, as Alfa Romeo was represented inside the top 10 by Kimi Raikkonen. In a closely-contested session Daniel Ricciardo and Antonio Giovinazzi took 12th and 13th respectively but were both within 1.1s of pacesetter Verstappen. Haas has spent 2021 at the back of the grid but Mick Schumacher suggested after Friday practice that he could creep into contention for Q2. Schumacher delivered on that notion by placing 15th through final practice. Conversely Aston Martin’s subdued 2021 campaign showed little sign of taking an upturn in fortunes. Lance Stroll, running the updated AMR21, was only 16th, while Sebastian Vettel could muster only 18th spot. They were split by Williams’ George Russell, who slipped down the leaderboard compared to Friday, while Nicholas Latifi and Nikita Mazepin capped the order. Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:18.489s 21 2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:18.725s + 0.236s 21 3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:18.820s + 0.331s 19 4 Sergio Pérez Red Bull 1:18.840s + 0.351s 24 5 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:18.860s + 0.371s 19 6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:19.001s + 0.512s 23 7 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:19.050s + 0.561s 24 8 Lando Norris McLaren 1:19.272s + 0.783s 18 9 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1:19.374s + 0.885s 25 10 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo 1:19.415s + 0.926s 25 11 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:19.485s + 0.996s 25 12 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1:19.582s + 1.093s 19 13 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 1:19.588s + 1.099s 23 14 Fernando Alonso Alpine 1:19.949s + 1.460s 20 15 Mick Schumacher Haas 1:20.033s + 1.544s 21 16 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:20.090s + 1.601s 17 17 George Russell Williams 1:20.127s + 1.638s 18 18 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1:20.214s + 1.725s 21 19 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:20.681s + 2.192s 19 20 Nikita Mazepin Haas 1:20.690s + 2.201s 20

It was back to business as usual on Friday at Portimao with Mercedes leading the timesheet in both practice sessions. Still, it was a day of minor problems for the world champions. They suffered from the wind like everyone else, according to Andrew Shovlin, but that wasn’t the only thing. “Valtteri seemed quite comfortable with the car, he was on the pace from the start and able to generate good grip from the tyres which allowed him to get into some useful setup investigations. Lewis struggled more with the rear end and whilst he topped the timesheets, we’ve got some work to do to improve the balance for him tomorrow”, said Shovlin, the chief engineer at Mercedes. Hamilton was a little short of time in the second free practice session, especially on the long runs, but Shovlin has a logical explanation for that. “We’d found some damage on both cars at the end of the day that will have been costing some performance and will certainly explain some of Lewis’s issues on the long run but even with that corrected, we could do with finding a bit more pace.” So for now, Mercedes is slightly the favourite in Portugal, especially as both drivers are competing at the head of the field, something that was not the case at Red Bull Racing. However, at Mercedes, they are also taking into account competition from a different quarter. ” The single lap looks really close with Red Bull but Ferrari were also consistently around our pace”, said Shovlin.