F1 Portugal 2021 Grand Prix Preview: The Battle For the Championship Continues

This race is following up two fantastic race weekends at Bahrain and Imola where we saw the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen exchange victories in enthralling races.

Formula 1 Portugal 2021 Grand Prix Track Details

The F1 Portugal 2021 Grand Prix will be held at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve, known more colloquially as Portimao, named after the port city it sits half an hour outside of. It was opened in the autumn of 2008, with the construction of the permanent facility completed in just seven months, at the reported cost of €195 million.

Portimao, like Mugello, another track that joined the F1 calendar in 2020, has never hosted a Formula 1 World Championship event. The track was used for F1 pre-season testing in the winter of 2008-09, however, several drivers on the grid (including Daniel Ricciardo, Charles Leclerc, and Valtteri Bottas), experienced the Portuguese circuit during their junior careers.

Number of Laps – 66

Circuit Length – 4.653km

Race Distance – 306.826 km

Lap Record – 1:18.750 Lewis Hamilton (2020)

2020 Recap

The Portuguese Grand Prix held on the 25th of October 2020, was the race that finally saw Lewis Hamilton achieve the accolade of holding more Formula 1 race victories than any other driver in F1 history, after his win in the Portuguese Grand Prix took him clear of Michael Schumacher’s tally of 91.

However, it didn’t look all that promising from the start as on Lap 1 Hamilton dropped to third while he struggled to get his medium compound tires up to temperature. But, once they were turned on he recovered to re-take a lead he never lost as he stormed to record-breaking win number 92.

Hamilton eventually crossed the line more than 25s in front of Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas in a dominant display that was fitting on a day when he took the mantle of F1’s most successful race winner ever.

F1 Portugal 2021 Grand Prix Prediction

My prediction for the F1 Portugal 2021 Grand Prix, I feel it looks very similar at the front to Bahrain and Italy on the podium, with P1 being contested between Mercedes and Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton will be looking to make ammends for his error in Imola and get back to winning ways, it will be a fiercely contested race between Hamilton and Verstappen who raced a near-perfect race and broke his Italian Grand Prix drout in Italy.

The rest of the grid is wide open, the McLaren team showed in Bahrain and Imola that Norris and Ricciardo will be there or thereabouts in 2021, and with Ricciardo, Perez, Bottas, and Norris all in with a great chance of the final podium spot.

From P5 to P10 Aston Martin appear to be the biggest threat to Ferrari creating a interesting battle for P5 between Vettel, Stroll, Sainz and LeClerc.
Both Ferrari looked comfortable last time out and another point scoring and improved race from Aston Martin was seen with Stroll finishing in 8th spot and after a better race a mechanical fault lead to the end for Vettel.

With the Alpha Tauri and Alpine both looking to make their way into the top 10 and record points, an unfortunate weekend for Tsunoda last time out saw a couple of rookie errors he will look to leave behind him, Gasly will be looking to emerge as driver 1 of the team and use his experience over the rookie.

Ocon coming 9th place last time out will be looking for another good points finish, with Alonso looking to regain the form we’re all used to seeing from the former Champion.

Much the same is expected at the back of the grid and will once again be a contest between Alfa Romeo, Williams and Haas.

Russell will be looking to right his wrongs from Imola after a race incident with Bottas brought a end to a promising race weekend a good performance is expected of the future Mercedes prospect.

Mick Schumacher once again made the most of getting in important laps in Imola with another race finish coming in 16th ahead of his teammate Mazepin who also managed a full race something that was deeply needed by the previous mistake prone rookie.

Raikkonen, Giovinazzi, and Latifi did very little to catch the eye in the opening two race weekends some form of improvement is very much required from these gentlemen.

Winner of the F1 Portugal 2021 Grand Prix – Max Verstappen

So, there you have it, my prediction for the F1 Portugal 2021 Grand Prix.

Do you agree with my predictions for the F1 Portugal 2021 Grand Prix? Leave your opinion down below in the comments!

Follow me on Twitter @JamesRees83 and my Author Page for more news and discussions.

Also, make sure to follow @OTH_Motorsport and @OT_Heroics for all of your sporting needs. Come discuss this and much more at the Overtime Heroics Forum!

Featured Image Credits to Embed from Getty Images, Embed from Getty Images , and Embed from Getty Images