2020 Portuguese Grand Prix Archives

F1 (Round 12): Results And Highlights Of 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix

♦ The first casualty right after the race began was Sergio Perez whose encounter at Turn 4 with Max Verstappen forced the BWT Racing Point driver to head back to the pits.

♦ When the race started, winds were strong and rain was forecast. As the cars completed half a lap of the circuit, the first drops of rain began to fall.

♦ Lewis Hamilton had gotten off to a good start but was overtaken by Valtteri Bottas who was caught by surprise by Carlos Sainz and lost his leading position to the McLaren driver. But Sainz had only a brief moment of glory and lost the lead to Bottas who was hotly pursued by Hamilton.

♦ The Red Bull team wanted Max Verstappen to stay out as long as possible before bringing him in for new tyres, but by the 17th lap, it was clear that he was starting to struggle with tyre issues.

♦ A day of drama for BWT Racing Point with both cars involved in collisions. On the 19th lap, Lance Stroll turned in and collided with Lando Norris, resulting in both cars being damaged enough to have to go into the pits for new wings. The Stewards found Stroll to be at fault and gave him a 5-second penalty.

♦ In spite of complaining about tyres, Hamilton regained the lead on lap 20 and began to try to pull further away from Bottas.

♦ Before the race reached its halfway point, Stroll got another bit of bad news from his team – another time penalty of 5 seconds for driving out of track limits too often.

♦ At the halfway mark, Hamilton was in a steady lead with 8 seconds separating him from Bottas. Charles Leclerc had moved up to third but was not a threat as he was 21 second behinds Bottas. The Ferrari driver managed to slip into the pits to change tyres and lost only one place when he rejoined the race behind Verstappen.

♦ By lap 40, the Mercedes-AMG team decided that Hamilton needed to change his tyres but the British driver seemed reluctant to come in even though he was a comfortable 8 seconds in the lead.

♦ On lap 41, the Stewards decided that Romain Grosjean had been warned enough times about exceeding track limits and gave him a 5-second penalty. Bottas was also starting to get warnings as well. Alexander Albon would also get a warning later on.

♦ A slow puncture was detected on Norris’ car and he began falling back on lap 43, taking care to reach the pits safely for a tyre change.

♦ With 53 laps completed, it looked like the Portuguese GP would see all cars completing the race… but then Stroll came into the pits and didn’t leave again. He was already in last place anyway.

♦ With 10 laps to go, Verstappen decided not to press hard to try to catch Bottas who was about 10 second ahead. He was fairly safe in third as Leclerc was 20 seconds behind, so the sensible thing to do was to make sure he got the car to the finish.

♦ On the 58th lap, Hamilton told his team that he was experiencing cramps… a case of dehydration? But it seemed to do him good as he went on to set the fastest time!

♦ Hamilton took the chequered flag of the 66-lap race with a 25-second lead and that win was his 92nd, which means he holds the record for the most number of wins in F1 history.

F1 (Round 12): Preview & Starting Grid For 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix

Race starts at 1:10 pm in Portugal/9:10 pm in Malaysia

Round 12 of the 2020 FIA Formula One World Championship will see teams race in Portugal for first time in 24 years. Not since 1996 has there been a Portuguese F1 Grand Prix although the country has had its own GP since the 1950s. In its first 10 years, it was run on a street circuit and then from 1984 until 1996, at the Estoril circuit. The poor condition of the circuit led to it being dropped as a F1 venue when the government was slow in making the required improvements.

However, the twelfth round is not being held at 48-year old Estoril circuit but the newer Algarve International Circuit, referred to as the Portimao Circuit as it is close to the city of that name. The circuit was completed in 2008 and is FIA-certified for world championships.

It has been added to the 2020 calendar as one of the circuits available in view of others being closed or conditions not suitable due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There is no certainty that the Portimao Circuit will be used again in future.

While the circuit has never hosted a F1 race, it has been used as a test venue for F1 teams on three occasions. Within two months of its completion, Ferrari and McLaren conducted a 2-day test; a month later, McLaren and Toyota came, followed by Renault, Toro Rosso and Williams.

A lot of ups and downs
The hillside circuit to the north of the city has been likened to a scaled down Spa-Francorchamps, as it is defined by frequent changes of elevation. The track features a wide variety of corners and also a long pit straight that measures almost a kilometre in length. A number of blind corners also call to mind Austin’s Circuit of the Americas.

“On paper, the track layout itself should suit higher downforce levels but because of the long main straight, we’re likely to see teams trialling different wing settings in practice to decide where the compromise is – being faster in the corners or protecting yourself on the long straight,” said Mercedes-AMG’s Toto Wolff.

“We’re expecting overtaking to be tricky in Portugal due to the flowing nature of the track and lack of heavy braking zones. The only DRS zone is on the main straight and the quick final corner will make it harder for cars to keep a tight gap. The zone itself is very long, so this should give drivers the chance to close up on their rivals,” he explained.

No historical data
This being a new venue, there is an absence of historical data to call upon. So achieving the perfect car set-up will be tricky and complicating matters is the fact that the entire track has been resurfaced for its first ever F1 race this weekend.

To best cope with the uncertain demands of the layout and the new surface, Pirelli is providing the hardest tyres in the range. The C1 compound will feature as the white-banded hard tyre, the C2 as the yellow medium and the C3 as the red soft tyre.

Championship positions
In the Drivers’ Championship, Lewis Hamilton remains in his commanding lead, now 69 points ahead of team mate Valtteri Bottas. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to narrow the gap to Bottas to just 14 points after the Mercedes-AMG driver did not finish at the Eifel Grand Prix a fortnight ago. Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo’s first podium since 2018 vaulted the Australian to fourth in the standings with 78 points, 10 points ahead of BWT Racing Point’s Sergio Perez.

In the battle for the Constructors’ crown, Mercedes-AMG have reached almost 400 points and 180 points ahead of second-placed Red Bull Racing. This weekend’s race could confirm the team’s seventh consecutive title. To do so, it would need to score 40 points or more than its closest rival. Incidentally, the Portuguese GP has twice been the championship-deciding race for the Drivers Championship (1984 and 1993).

Behind the top two, BWT Racing Point have overtaken McLaren to sit in third place with 120 points, though the gap is just 4 points. Ricciardo’s podium put Renault in fifth, 2 points behind McLaren.

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