F1 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix
© J. Francois Barnard – October 25, 2020
The Formula 1 Heineken Grande Prémio de Portugal 2020 took us to Portugal on October 25, 2020, for the first time since 1996! It was held at the Algarve International Circuit in the town of Portimão.
The first practice session went about as we can predict by now: Bottas fastest, Hamilton second and Verstappen third. It was the second session, though, which was more exciting with two red flags coming out. Pierre Gasly had to bail out of his AlphaTauri as it caught fire. Next was Verstappen and Stroll colliding. The session ended with Bottas on top followed by Verstappen and third was Norris in his McLaren.

Picture credit: iNews
The third practice session was also red-flagged. Sebastian Vettel ran over a drain cover, and the lid came loose. It ended with Bottas fastest, then Hamilton and third Verstappen.
Track officials delayed the qualifying session as they had to get a welder to fix the drain cover. Q1 ended with George Russell pushing Kimi Räikkönen down and out of contention for the next session. Also eliminated were Giovinazzi, Grosjean, Magnussen, and Latifi.
Q2 saw George Russell ahead of Sebastian Vettel - something the Ferrari team would not like to be reminded of. Daniel Ricciardo went off the track and slid backwards into the tyre wall. He managed to drive right over the gravel trap and back to the pits. His teammate, Esteban Ocon was eliminated from Q2, as were Stroll, Kvyat, Russell and Vettel.
During the first run of Q3, all cars, bar Albon, were running of soft tyres. Then Mercedes changed their cars over to medium tyres and performed significantly better. Hamilton took pole position, ahead of Bottas and Verstappen.
The excitement of the performance of the medium tyres was, however, shortlived. At the start of the race, chaos ensued as those on soft tyres exchanged places with those on medium tyres (Hamilton, Bottas, and Leclerc). By the second lap, Sainz was leading the race, but from lap six onwards, the faster cars retook their former positions. A little rain at turns two and three made the track slippery, and the cars took those turns far beyond the track limits.
We saw a sterling performance from Sainz, Pérez, and Gasly, fighting hard over positions while remaining respectful towards their opponents.
Lewis Hamilton won the Portuguese Grand Prix, surpassing Michael Schumacher as the Formula One Driver with the most race wins at a total of 92. Valtteri Bottas finished second, trailing 25.592 seconds behind Hamilton. Verstappen finished third.
The race classification:
Position |
Driver |
Constructor |
Grid |
Points |
1 |
Lewis Hamilton |
Mercedes |
1 |
26 |
2 |
Valtteri Bottas |
Mercedes |
2 |
18 |
3 |
Max Verstappen |
Red Bull Racing-Honda |
3 |
15 |
4 |
Charles Leclerc |
Ferrari |
4 |
12 |
5 |
Pierre Gasly |
AlphaTauri-Honda |
9 |
10 |
6 |
Carlos Sainz Jr. |
McLaren-Renault |
7 |
8 |
7 |
Sergio Pérez |
Racing Point-BWT Mercedes |
5 |
6 |
8 |
Esteban Ocon |
Renault |
11 |
4 |
9 |
Daniel Ricciardo |
Renault |
10 |
2 |
10 |
Sebastian Vettel |
Ferrari |
15 |
1 |