Formula 1 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix results

Sainz led the midfield teams in qualifying to take P5 on the grid, and made a good start to pass Sergio Perez for fourth on the opening lap. But following a safety car period, Sainz slipped behind Perez and former McLaren teammate Lando Norris before pitting for a set of medium tyres at the end of lap 21.
It caused him to struggle in the closing stages as the majority of cars around him opted ...

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It was at IndyCar?s season-opening round at Barber Motorsports Park, where O?Ward earned pole position, that Brown made the promise to the young Arrow McLaren SP ace that he could drive a McLaren-Mercedes Formula 1 car in the Abu Dhabi F1 test in December.  
Brown reiterated that point after O?Ward won the second race in Texas Motor Speedway?s double-header of IndyCar action ...

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Seven-time F1 world champion Hamilton scored the 97th victory of his career in Sunday?s Portuguese Grand Prix, passing Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas en route to the race win.
Hamilton said after his win that he found the race mentally and physically draining, having recovered from a slip-up on the restart after the safety car that dropped him to third place. Mercedes has found itself ...

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Alpine showed competitive pace throughout practice for the Portuguese Grand Prix, only for Alonso to slump to 13th in qualifying as teammate Esteban Ocon took sixth place on the grid.
But the race saw Alonso battle his way up the order, making overtakes on Pierre Gasly, Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz in the closing stages to cross the line eighth, just one second behind Ocon. It marked ...

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Formula 1?s second visit to Portimao came threw up vastly different conditions to its inaugural grand prix last October, but ended with the same race winner in Lewis Hamilton.
The slip-and-slide opening laps from last year?s race may not have been repeated, but low-grip conditions again left drivers facing a unique challenge on a track that has quickly worked its way into F1 ...

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Perez was running fourth in the early stages of the Portimao race but did not follow the same strategy as the three cars ahead of him when it came to the timing of his stop.
While teammate Max Verstappen was pitted on lap 35 in a bid to try to jump the Mercedes duo he was fighting, Perez was kept out much longer in the lead of the race.
Despite being much slower than the cars on fresh ...

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Having seen the win taken away from the Dutchman in Bahrain when he ran wide while overtaking Lewis Hamilton for the lead, and a pole position lap in Portimao deleted for going off circuit, Verstappen's final fastest lap effort was also scrubbed after he ran off track at the penultimate corner.
Verstappen himself called it "odd" that he had been singled out for running wide at Turn 14, while ...

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Bottas led the opening stages of the race after qualifying on pole position, but was overtaken by Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton during the first stint of the race.
The Finn slipped to third after Red Bull's Max Verstappen was able to get the undercut and make a pass, only for the Mercedes driver to catch back up towards the end of the race. But after the gap dropped below two seconds, Bottas ...

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Bottas led from pole position, ahead of teammate Hamilton and Red Bull?s Verstappen. After a safety car was required, as Alfa Romeo?s Kimi Raikkonen hit his teammate Antonio Giovinazzi, covering the track in debris from his front wing, Verstappen jumped ahead of Hamilton to grab second place at the restart.
But Hamilton quickly repassed him, after Verstappen made an error, and Lewis then ...

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The Finnish driver made an impressive start to the race in Portugal, making up two places on the opening lap, but at the start of the second lap he ran into the rear of Giovinazzi which ripped off his Alfa Romeo's front wing and it became lodged under the front wheels of his car.
Raikkonen skated into the gravel at Turn 1, which forced him to retire from the race, while his teammate escaped any ...

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Verstappen finished second for Red Bull in the Portuguese Grand Prix on Sunday, losing ground on race winner and Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton in the drivers? championship.
Late pit stops for Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez and Mercedes? Valtteri Bottas gave Verstappen a window to take a free stop and go for the fastest time with one lap remaining. He was able to snatch the bonus point away ...

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During the Portuguese GP weekend, the Swiss squad won the right to review the penalty handed to Raikkonen at the last race at Imola, when the FIA handed Raikkonen a 30-second post-race penalty for breaking rules under the red flag restart.
On the lap prior to the restart, Raikkonen spun his Alfa Romeo at Turn 3, with F1 rules stating that drivers can retake their original position as long as ...

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Hamilton was following his teammate ahead of the race resuming after an early safety car period had been called so the Portimao track could be cleared of the debris thrown up by Alfa Romeo teammates Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi colliding on the pit straight at the start of lap two, a clash that put for the former out with a broken front wing.
Bottas led the pack around for the restart ...

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Verstappen took a free pitstop late on in a bid to set the fastest lap in the closing stages of the Portuguese Grand Prix, which he managed after beating Valtteri Bottas's benchmark by 0.016 seconds on the final lap.
But Verstappen's time was deleted shortly after the chequered flag when race control deemed that he had exceeded track limits at Turn 14.
Verstappen was left puzzled by the ...

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Such was Hamilton's commanding position approaching the finish, Verstappen and Bottas stopped for an extra stop to chase the fastest lap bonus point, which inflated his gap at the chequered flag.
At the start, Bottas leapt off the front row best, with the polesitter then racing down to the rapid right-hand Turn 1 to extend his advantage as Verstappen had a half look at passing the Hamilton ...

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Vettel finished the Q3 session in 10th place, having at times during qualifying shown the potential to be even higher on the grid.
It was the first time in 2021 that Vettel has outqualified teammate Lance Stroll - the Canadian, who was running a new aerodynamic package, failed to make it out of Q1 in 17th place.
The Portuguese session also marked the first time Vettel had made into Q3 since ...

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In Portugal on Saturday, the new Ferrari driver demonstrated that he is a fast learner by outpacing his teammate Charles Leclerc in Q3 to claim fifth on the grid.
It's only a sample of one, and it happened at a track where wind and a tricky surface made it something of a lottery, and on a day where Leclerc readily admitted that he was not at his best in Q3.
Crucially it was also Leclerc and ...

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Red Bull is throwing huge resource behind its new engine programme, with a state-of-the-art facility being built in Milton Keynes to house the project.
F1 team chief and powertrains CEO Christian Horner has made clear that it is on the lookout to hire the 'best' people it can get as it eyes up creating its own engine from 2025.
Red Bull recently announced that it had signed long-time ...

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George Russell qualified 11th for the Portuguese Grand Prix ? his best qualifying result for Williams ? two weeks after he started 12th on the grid at Imola.
On both occasions he was very close to making his first Q3 appearance with Williams, ending up 0.123-seconds adrift of that achievement at Imola and 0.057s short in qualifying on Saturday at Portimao.
When asked if such close ...

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With little to choose in pace terms between the F1 title rivals at Portimao, the two teams are heading into the race on Sunday with completely different options available in their respective bids for victory.
While both squads will be starting the race on the medium tyre, it is the compound that they switch on to for their second stint that will likely see them diverge.
Having run different ...

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Raikkonen lost his ninth place at Imola a fortnight ago after the FIA ruled that he had broken the rules in taking the red flag restart of the race from the track.
On the lap prior to the rolling restart, Raikkonen had spun his Alfa Romeo at Turn 3 before getting going again. The F1 rules state that drivers can retake their original position as long as this is done before the first safety car ...

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The Australian has had difficult weekends at Imola and Portimao, being unable to match teammate Lando Norris.
But the contrast was huge during qualifying at the Portuguese Grand Prix when Ricciardo was dumped out of Q1 as he lacked confidence to push his McLaren as he would like. He will start from 16th on the grid.
McLaren is clear that Ricciardo is simply lacking mileage in ...

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Alpine showed an improved level of performance throughout Friday?s practice running for the Portuguese Grand Prix after struggling to battle with the midfield leaders at the opening two races.
While Esteban Ocon was able to translate this pace into qualifying, taking sixth place on the grid, two-time F1 world champion Alonso struggled to 13th, dropping out in Q2.
Alonso was left puzzled by ...

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In his third qualifying outing for Red Bull, Perez finished fourth in Q3 at Portimao and just 0.144s off teammate Max Verstappen in third place.
But the Mexican driver reported similar struggles to Verstappen after qualifying, encountering a lack of balance on the low-grip Portimao surface, highlighted by a spin at Turn 4 in Q1.
Perez explained after qualifying that he was not happy with the ...

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Mercedes drivers have locked out the front row of the grid at Portimao, with Valtteri Bottas lining up on pole position ahead of world champion Lewis Hamilton.
Having lost his best lap in qualifying to a track limits infringement, Max Verstappen starts the race from third on the grid in the lead Red Bull, with teammate Sergio Perez alongside him in fourth.
When is the Formula 1 Portuguese ...

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Bottas will start ahead of Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull's Max Verstappen after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.

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Portuguese GP: Bottas denies Hamilton pole by 0.007s
Bottas says work addressing tyres "weak point" led to ...

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Red Bull driver Verstappen managed to set the fastest time out of all the first runs in Q3, only for his effort to be deleted after the stewards deemed he exceeded track limits at Turn 4.
It left Verstappen with just a single run at the end of the session to try and claim his second pole of the season, but he fell 0.398 seconds short of the fastest time, leaving him third on the ...

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Bottas failing to warm up his tyres sufficiently in Q3 last time out at Imola meant he slumped to eighth on the grid, and further struggles with retaining tyre temperature in the Emilia Romagna race meant he was lapped before half distance, just before he was eliminated in his enormous accident with George Russell.
The issue of good tyre warm-up has been a central theme to the Portimao weekend ...

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Russell only just made it out of Q1 in 15th place, but subsequently achieved what he acknowledged as the best qualifying result of his three-year career with Williams.
He bounced back from the disappointment of his huge Imola crash with Valtteri Bottas in some style, while acknowledging that it had not been a straightforward session. From 11th, Russell will be the first driver with a free ...

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The latest changes to the 2021 FIA Financial Regulations include official confirmation of the numbers that were finally agreed after months of debate between the teams, the FIA and F1, which delayed the official announcement of the sprint qualifying format.
Teams were concerned that a sprint race and thus an extra start and first lap created a risk of extra damage, and that it would compromise ...

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The Australian had had an encouraging first day of practice in Portugal, but could not pull a lap together in Q1 on Saturday to get himself through to the second part of qualifying. It means he will line up 16th on the grid, which is his worst start since the 2019 Japanese Grand Prix.
Reflecting on what went wrong, Ricciardo said there was no obvious answer as to why he was lacking pace ...

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During qualifying on Saturday afternoon, David Brabham drove past the wreckage of teammate Roland Ratzenberger's car, and he was devastated to learn later than the Austrian had died.
"I remember coming around the first corner and seeing bits of bodywork on the ground," he recalls. "As soon as I saw them I immediately thought it was Roland. By the time I got there the ambulance had ...

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F1 introduced a new $145 million budget cap for the 2021 season, policed by an all-new set of financial regulations that worked alongside the sporting and technical rulebooks.
The financial regulations state the sanctions for breaches can include financial penalties, minor sporting penalties, material sporting penalties or enhanced monitoring. But it has emerged that three teams voted against ...

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Hamilton entered qualifying at Portimao looking to become the first driver in F1 history to hit triple figures for pole positions.
But after setting the fastest time in Q2, Hamilton was unable to match his lap in the final stage of qualifying as he qualified second, 0.007 seconds off teammate Valtteri Bottas on pole.

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Portuguese GP: Bottas denies Hamilton pole by ...

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Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko spoke out after qualifying at Portimao in suggesting that there could have been an ulterior motive to Norris being told on team radio not to do Verstappen any favours.
Speaking to Austrian channel Servus TV, Marko said Red Bull had noted the radio message ? and hinted at it being a ploy by McLaren to help boost engine partner Mercedes.
Looking at ...

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F1's top two teams opted for different tyre strategies for the final runs in Q3, with the Mercedes drivers returning to medium tyres with which they had dominated in Q2, and used to top qualifying at Portimao in 2020, while Verstappen stuck with the softs throughout.
But the tyre change did not work for either of the Black Arrows drivers, as Bottas's 1m18.38s that was set on the first Q3 runs ...

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Imola was just the third round of the championship, and there had already been numerous high profile accidents in testing and racing before the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna prompted a radical overhaul in the approach to driver protection.




Heading in to the 1994 season there had been a big rule change, which had not only set about reducing costs and handing back ...

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In overcast and cooler conditions compared to the Friday running, the drivers had to spend lots of time carefully preparing their tyres to get them in the correct temperature window with multiple warm-up laps on the low-grip surface at Portimao.
The final one-hour practice session was something of a slow burner, with most teams keeping their cars in the garage during the opening 10 minutes ...

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Raikkonen was deemed to have broken the regulations at Imola when he failed to enter the pitlane for the race restart after the red-flag period triggered by the Valtteri Bottas and George Russell crash.
On the lap prior to the rolling restart, Raikkonen had spun his Alfa Romeo at Turn 3 before getting going again. The F1 rules state that drivers can retake their original position as long as ...

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Russell lost control and slid into the Finn?s Mercedes when he made a move on the outside heading into the first chicane.
Both cars crashed heavily, and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff subsequently made it clear that he was not happy that Russell had tried what he felt was a risky pass and triggered the crash.
Williams had already lost the car of Nicholas Latifi in an accident, and so finished ...

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