Bottas edges Verstappen on F1's return to 'the rollercoaster'
Bottas edges Verstappen on F1's return to 'the rollercoaster'
Valtteri Bottas shrugged aside his wretched Imola weekend to set the pace at the end of first practice for Sunday's Portuguese Grand Prix.
Mercedes driver Bottas struggled for pace a fortnight ago in the Emilia Romagna GP before his race was ended via a spectacular crash with Williams' George Russell.
Bottas' primary issues in Italy were tyre warm-up given the cool, wet conditions, but in the warmer climes of the Algarve, the Finn was back on the pace.
On Pirelli's soft tyres, Bottas posted a time of one minute 19.648secs around a circuit known as 'the rollercoaster' given its wild undulations, edging Red Bull's Verstappen by just 0.025s, despite the Dutch driver posting the fastest times across the first two sectors.
As for championship leader Lewis Hamilton, who holds a slender one-point lead over Verstappen in the standings, the seven-time title-winner had to settle for the fifth quickest time, finishing three-tenths of a second behind team-mate Bottas.
Verstappen's time, in particular, was set shortly after he had complained over the team radio about vibrations from his RB16B after taking to the soft tyres.
Verstappen backed out from his first flying lap as he said: "The tyres are vibrating so much I can't see where I'm going."
After being told to box if there was a safety concern, Verstappen replied: "I'll just visit the dentist after the weekend", before then just missing out on the leading time on the hot lap that followed.
Verstappen's Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez who was 0.198s off the pace in third, followed by Ferrari's Charles Leclerc who was 0.236s down on Bottas.
AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly was sixth fastest, with Williams' Russell also bouncing back from a Sunday to forget in Imola with a superb time that saw him 0.881s down on Bottas.
McLaren's Lando Norris, Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and Esteban Ocon in the Alpine completed the top 10, with Lance Stroll the leading Aston Martin driver in 11th, half-a-second up on Sebastian Vettel who was only 16th quickest.
Ahead of Vettel were two other former F1 champions in Alpine's Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen for Alfa Romeo.
On an FP1 outing after being named as Alfa Romeo's second reserve driver earlier this week, Callum Ilott finished 17th on the timesheet, just four-tenths of a second behind Raikkonen.
At the rear of the field were Haas duo Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin who sandwiched Williams' Nicholas Latifi.
Mazepin finished 4.576s down on Bottas, and 2.3s behind Schumacher, even though both were on the soft tyres and completed 29 laps apiece.
Track limits again reared its ugly head across the session, with a total of 34 lap times deleted which were shared between turns one and four.
Overall, 16 drivers had a lap time deleted, with only Hamilton, Verstappen, Perez and Ocon avoiding such an ignominy.
Portuguese GP first practice times
1 Valtteri Bottas [Mercedes] 1:19.648
2. Max Verstappen [Red Bull] +0.025s
3. Sergio Perez [Red Bull] +0.198s
4. Charles Leclerc [Ferrari] +0.236s
5. Lewis Hamilton [Mercedes] +0.319s
6. Pierre Gasly [Alpha Tauri] +0.796s
7. George Russell [Williams] +0.881s
8. Lando Norris [McLaren] +0.987s
9. Carlos Sainz [Ferrari] +1.032s
10. Esteban Ocon [Alpine] +1.152s
11 Lance Stroll [Aston Martin] +1.246s
12. Daniel Ricciardo [McLaren] +1.347s
13. Yuki Tsunoda [Alpha Tauri] +1.442s
14. Fernando Alonso [Alpine] +1.655s
15. Kimi Raikkonen [Alfa Romeo] +1.733s
16. Sebastian Vettel [Aston Martin] +1.757s
17. Callum Ilott [Alfa Romeo] +2.158s
18. Mick Schumacher [Haas] +2.291s
19. Nicholas Latifi [Williams] +2.645s
20. Nikita Mazepin [Haas] +4.576s
Related
Change your timezone:
Latest News
Hamilton relationship 'ENDS' as F1 legend looks for celebrity date
- 49 minutes ago
F1 team boss lends support to Alonso amid HUGE backlash
- 1 hour ago
Mercedes driver reveals unique BENEFIT to being Verstappen’s team-mate
- 2 hours ago
Wolff WARNS Hamilton about Ferrari competitiveness
- 3 hours ago
F1 owners ‘close’ to stunning £3.5 BILLION takeover of motorsport rival
- Today 08:27
F1 News Today: Ricciardo 'ULTIMATUM' rumours addressed by Marko as bizarre F1 curse blamed for crashes
- Today 05:57
F1 Race Calendar
-
GP BAHRAIN
29 Feb - 2 Mar
Max Verstappen
-
GP SAUDI ARABIA
7 - 9 Mar
Max Verstappen
-
GP AUSTRALIA
22 - 24 Mar
Carlos Sainz
- GP JAPAN 5 - 7 Apr
- GP CHINA 19 - 21 Apr
- GP USA 3 - 6 May
- GP ITALY 17 - 19 May
- GP MONACO 24 - 26 May
Related news
F1 to discuss China Portugal calendar dilemma
Ferrari seeking answers to car inconsistency
Hamilton breaks yet another Schumacher record
Russell felt like an “amateur” trying to handle Williams “beast”
F1 Standings
Drivers
- Oliver Bearman
- Charles Leclerc
- Carlos Sainz
- Lando Norris
- Oscar Piastri
- Pierre Gasly
- Esteban Ocon
- Sergio Pérez
- Max Verstappen
- Alexander Albon
- Logan Sargeant
- Lewis Hamilton
- George Russell
- Nico Hülkenberg
- Kevin Magnussen
- Fernando Alonso
- Lance Stroll
- Valtteri Bottas
- Zhou Guanyu
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Yuki Tsunoda
Races
- Gulf Air Grand Prix of Bahrain 2024
- Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Australia 2024
- MSC Cruises Grand Prix of Japan 2024
- Grand Prix of China 2024
- Miami Grand Prix 2024
- Gran Premio dell'Emilia Romagna 2024
- Grand Prix of Monaco 2024
- Grand Prix du Canada 2024
- Gran Premio de España 2024
- Grand Prix of Austria 2024
- Grand Prix of Great Britain 2024
- Grand Prix of Hungary 2024
- Grand Prix of Belgium 2024
- Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Italy 2024
- Grand Prix of Azerbaijan 2024
- Grand Prix of Singapore 2024
- Grand Prix of the United States 2024
- Gran Premio de la Ciudad de Mexico 2024
- Grande Prêmio de São Paulo 2024
- Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2024
- Qatar Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi 2024
About GPFans
GPFans is a multi-platform, multi-language brand dedicated to Formula One coverage. We bring you all the ins and outs of the sport, 24/7, everything from up-to-the-minute news and features to the latest viral stories and clips.We believe that a new generation of exciting, outspoken drivers will make F1 more popular than ever before, and we want to give our users access to as much of their heroes as possible, on and off the track. From Lewis Hamilton to Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo to Sebastian Vettel, we provide in-depth analysis of every every Grand Prix in the season, from Australia to Abu Dhabi.
With Formula One under the new ownership of Liberty Media, how the sport is being covered is evolving, and GPFans will look to be at the heart of this progression into new media, as one of the fastest-growing sites covering the king of motorsports.
Follow us on your favorite social media channel
Corporate & Media
Innovatieweg 20C7007 CD, Doetinchem, Netherlands
+31645516860