Brendan Lines October 24, 2020

Valtteri Bottas was back-to-back fastest across Friday’s practice sessions, the Finn so far is the only driver to post a sub 1:18s time around Portimao’s green track surface, despite two spectacular incidents red-flagging the FP2 session.

Bottas’ fastest time of 1:17.940s was over half a second clear of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in P2.

“The track was evolving lap by lap, and it got better throughout the day, but maybe it was reset slightly in between the two sessions, and with red flags in second practice there wasn’t that much useful running,” Bottas said.

“So, I’m still expecting an increase in grip over the rest of the weekend. The balance of the car was also pretty good.

“I was mainly struggling in the slow speed corners with the rear end of the car but it is not too far away from where I want it, as the lap times would also suggest.”

Verstappen’s session ended after a Turn 1 argument with Racing Point’s Lance Stroll, the two cars squeezed together both starting hot laps. but failed to stay out of each others way, coming together for the second red flag.

Stewards later deemed the incident required ‘no further investigation’ and neither driver was penalised.

The first incident of the session came when Pierre Gasly’s Alpha Tauri spontaneously combusted from the right side bank of its power-unit on the exit of Turn 13, the Frenchman abandoned his burning car unscathed, though finishing P7.

Charles Leclerc kept his Ferrari up the front of the order in P4 matching the cars ahead to run in the 1:18s, he was joined in the top-ten by teammate Sebastian Vettel who improved from P11 in FP1 to P6.

Lando Norris’ P3 was a vast improvement on the morning’s session also joining the ‘1:18 club’ with a lap of 1:18.743 in his McLaren, his teammate Carlos Sainz ran four tenths off Norris finishing P5.

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton spent more time in the garage than he’d like to as a result of the red flags, his Mercedes didn’t respond favourably to set up changes, the Brit managing just P8.

Esteban Ocon was the fastest Renault in P9, while Red Bull’s Alex Albon rounded out the top-ten.

FP3 and Qualifying begin from 08:30pm ACDST tonight.