Valtteri Bottas completed a clean sweep in Portuguese Grand Prix free practice when topping the third and final session yesterday ahead of his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.
The Finn, who returned a “double top” on Friday, clocked a best lap in 1 minute, 16.654 seconds to outpace the six-time champion by 0.026 seconds on a bright and warm day at the Algarve track.
Hamilton, who leads Bottas by 69 points in the drivers’ title race, rebounded from a disappointing opening day, when he was eighth, to prove that he has learned his way round the challenging new Algarve International Circuit, albeit that he had an “off” into the gravel at Turn 7, damaging a front wing end-plate.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Max Verstappen was third for Red Bull, 0.158 seconds off the pace, ahead of Pierre Gasly of Alpha Tauri, Alex Albon in the second Red Bull and Charles Leclerc in the leading Ferrari.
Carlos Sainz and his McLaren teammate Lando Norris were seventh and ninth, separated by Racing Point’s Sergio Perez, with Esteban Ocon 10th in the leading Renault.
Ocon’s teammate Daniel Ricciardo was 14th after a frustrating session during which his car required minor repairs and four-time champion Sebastian Vettel was 11th for Ferrari as he seeks to complete his career with the team “with dignity.”
Photo: Reuters
The session, which ended prematurely when a drain cover lifted and opened at Turn 14, was run in warm and dry conditions, the track temperature rising from 22°C to 30°C.
A day earlier, Bottas maintained his habit of being “fastest on Friday” in an incident-hit second practice.
The Finn clocked a best lap in 1 minute, 17.940 seconds to beat Verstappen by 0.6 seconds. It was the sixth consecutive Grand Prix at which Bottas, who topped both of the day’s sessions, was fastest in opening practice.
Verstappen was involved in a collision with Racing Point’s Lance Stroll that halted the action and required both men to visit the stewards, while Gasly’s Alpha Tauri caught fire, causing an earlier stoppage.
Stewards agreed to take no further action following the crash.
The Red Bull driver and his Racing Point counterpart said that the collision was the result of a misunderstanding and that neither man was entirely to blame.
“Stroll was on a fast lap and was allowed to pass by Verstappen on the lap preceding the incident,” a stewards’ statement said. “Given the information from his team and usual practice, Verstappen assumed that Stroll would back off for the next lap and moved to overtake along the main straight.”
“However, Stroll was instructed by his team to go for a second flying lap. Stroll assumed that Verstappen would have backed off to gain a gap between them, also in line with usual practice, and so was not looking for the overtaking Verstappen,” the stewards said.
“The drivers agreed in the hearing that the incident was the result of a misunderstanding between them and that with hindsight, both could have contributed to avoid the incident,” they said.
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