Portugal GP Race Report

All the talk before the race was about the same two drivers as at the end of the last race out, George Russell and Valterri Bottas.  Could Russell score his first F1 points at this race?  Could Bottas win?  Toto Wolff commented that Bottas's rebound from his "very bad weekend" was impressive.  There was definitely a feeling that he needed to prove himself.

With no rain, unlike the last visit to Portamau and the track less new and slippy, the great unknown of the race was tire choice.

The first lap was clean with no incidents but by lap 2 Raikkonen was off and despite parking very cleverly near a gap in a gravel trap, brought out a full safety car.  As debris was cleared from the main straight, Bottas trundled the pack around the track for several laps before deploying a cunning plan and backing Hamilton into Verstappen.  This paid off and when they crossed the line, Verstappen was quickly in second.  The other driver of interest, Russell was swiftly overtaken from having held his position in 11th down to 15th over the next lap.  

The problem with Bottas' plan was that it put himself into the sights of Verstappen who immediately got the use of DRS.  Luckily, Hamilton also received DRS and was able to retake the place from Verstappen after a slight mistake.  As long as Hamilton and Verstappen continued to wrestle each other for P2, Bottas would be able to extend his lead.  However, a third of the way into the race, just as drivers were conserving their tires, Hamilton was able to make the overtake using DRS.  DRS definitely being the biggest player in this race.  The question now was whether Verstappen was quick enough/Bottas slow enough for him to lose another place.

From then it was slightly processional until the one pit stop in the middle of the race.  Verstappen pitted first and was able to take Bottas after his stop.  This brief spurt of racey action didn't last.  We saw Perez in the lead, which will look nice on his end-of-season briefing sheet.

The current expectation is that Mercedes will battle Red Bull and McLaren will battle Ferrari however Alpine were right in there, which is pleasing.  In particular, when Alonso overtook Sainz.  

As the grid settled into place towards the end of the race we were left with team mates battling each other.  Vettel overtook Stroll.  Alonso went for Ocon but was unable to secure it.  

Bottas and Verstappen both pitted at the end of the race to secure the fastest lap point.  Bottas claimed it, then Verstappen beat him...by going off the track limits, so Bottas got it back again.  Di Resta got to break the news to Verstappen during the interviews.  Hamilton claimed it was a very tough race, mentally and physically because of the wind.  Bottas finished third in the end, despite his "strong package", he seemed to have no understanding why he could not maintain the lead of the race and secure the win.  There seems to be a growing realisation in him that he is just not going to beat Hamilton.

And as for Russell, he finished 16th ahead of his team mate, the Haas and the retired Raikkonen.  Russell will not score points until he is driving a car with the race pace.

I was very pleased during the race when Crofty confused Alpine with Williams - not just me who is struggling with the blue liveries.

Throughout the race we were urged to Visit Portugal....when?  How?

Portugal Qualifying Report

Here we are, during this topsy-turvy season, in Portugal.  Racing here, on this typically motorbiking track, last season in October and now in May, it's a different track facing the drivers.  At a glance you can see that everything has changed in F1 as the drivers are wearing beanies more often than caps, they're not visiting the tracks during the hottest parts of the year as they normally would.

The final arrangements for the sprint race qualifying have been released this week.  My feeling is slightly that of being deprived of watching qualifying as it now takes place on Friday afternoon - I bet lots of F1 fans work on a Friday afternoon.  The sprint race will also deliver points, which seems unfair as you also win position on track for the main race.  I have a gut feeling that each sprint race will either be fantastic viewing or a boring procession.  There are three practice sprint races (Silverstone, Italy and TBC) this year but if it happens for every race next year, what about the processional races such as Monaco?  This will be pointless.  If there's any sort of incident though, the sprint race could be very good as there is no opportunity to reclaim places lost.  I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes and it means I get three evening of F1 on those weekends.

Sky F1 spoke to Bottas ahead of qualifying and he spoke about his problem this season is not being able to get his tires working.  This is a fine reason if you are fresh in the team, like Ricciardo at McLaren, Perez at Red Bull or Sainz at Ferrari but he's been in this car for a fair few seasons now, he should have the engineering relationships and feel for the car to eliminate this.  He tested for Pirelli between the last race and this, so perhaps this will help.

As quite often happens, teams bring upgrades to races but only enough for one car, this was the case for Aston Martin.  Who got the parts?  Four-times world champion Sebastian Vettel or the Canadian in his third season, Lance Stroll?  Stroll of course, his daddy owns the team.

With Qualifying underway, Perez spun with a tail wind into the gravel in Q1 but this didn't affect his place in the next session.  Russell continued his qualifying success, getting his Williams into Q2 every race so far this season.  What is notable about this is that he beat Ricciardo in McLaren (with his team mate finishing the session in second and a hearty swear on team radio, thinks he'll feel and drive better after a sleep) and Stroll in Aston Martin (with the upgrades).  In the end he didn't make Q3 but was "best of the rest" in 11th.  It's all going in the right direction.

At the sharp end of the grid, Verstappen just couldn't put the lap together, especially after his first was deleted (track limits), costing him the pole position as the wind picked up towards the end of the session.  The fact that he wasn't much lower down the grid than third was mostly due to other drivers not being able to best their initial lap.  Bottas scored pole position, a much needed victory over his team mate, Hamilton.  He puts this down to "hard work pays off", makes you wonder whether he believes the other drivers, at the top and peak of their profession spend their off-time eating doughnuts on the couch.  What sort of hard work has he been doing?  All the British media are secretly pleased that Hamilton didn't score his century pole as they can string this out for another race or two.  Ocon scored a pleasantly high margin over veteran team mate Alonso, position 6 to position 13.  Vettel was finally able to show his worth finishing 10th to Stroll's 17th.  Sainz starts 5th ahead of his established team mate LeClerc in 8th.  It wasn't all good news for team newcomers as Norris starts 7th ahead of Ricciardo's 16th.

Today's suggestion for improving F1 is to paint these controversial corners, which are drawn to drivers' attention as to where the track limits are.  Let's paint them red or do it virtually like the advertising hoarding, this would make it much easier for us laymen to spot when a violation has occurred.

I wouldn't say the grid promises a spectacular race.  Will the wind affect it?  Last year it was incident-packed so fingers crossed...