Bottas tops opening Portuguese GP practice

Make that seven track cleaning opening practice sessions in a row for Valtteri Bottas, who has once again started a weekend strongly.

Bottas lapped at 1m18.410s on Medium tires  that was  0.339s ahead of Mercedes F1 teammate Lewis Hamilton in Practice 1 of the Portuguese GP in Portimao.

Lewis Hamilton – LAT Images

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was third on hard tires, some seven-tenths down on Bottas. The Dutchman was the first of a number of drivers who spun in the tricky conditions.

Charles Leclerc was an encouraging fourth for Ferrari and just eight-tenths off the pace running the Scuderia’s latest upgrade package.

The second Red Bull of Alex Albon rounded out the top five positions, ahead of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr., Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and the Alfa Romeo of Kimi Raikkonen.

Daniel Ricciardo and Pierre Gasly completed the top-10.

Practice 1 Results

POS NO DRIVER CAR TIME GAP LAPS
1 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:18.410 +0.000s 35
2 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:18.749 +0.339s 35
3 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing Honda 1:19.191 +0.781s 32
4 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:19.309 +0.899s 33
5 23 Alexander Albon Red Bull Racing Honda 1:19.365 +0.955s 34
6 55 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren Renault 1:19.441 +1.031s 42
7 11 Sergio Perez Racing Point BWT Mercedes 1:19.907 +1.497s 31
8 7 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari 1:19.954 +1.544s 34
9 3 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1:20.058 +1.648s 27
10 10 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri Honda 1:20.124 +1.714s 29
11 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:20.200 +1.790s 37
12 4 Lando Norris McLaren Renault 1:20.207 +1.797s 29
13 26 Daniil Kvyat AlphaTauri Honda 1:20.278 +1.868s 32
14 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 1:20.846 +2.436s 28
15 18 Lance Stroll Racing Point BWT Mercedes 1:20.954 +2.544s 32
16 99 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari 1:21.009 +2.599s 35
17 8 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 1:21.169 +2.759s 31
18 63 George Russell Williams Mercedes 1:21.374 +2.964s 31
19 31 Esteban Ocon Renault 1:21.673 +3.263s 31
20 6 Nicholas Latifi Williams Mercedes 1:22.054 +3.644s 34