F1 Starting Grid 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix
F1 Event: Portuguese Grand Prix
Race Track: Portimão Circuit
Start time: 16:00 CET | 15:00 UK | 07:00 LA | 23:00 Tokio
As always there will be a lot of drivers who are happy and sad about their qualifying performance today.
Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz, Esteaban Ocoan, Sebastian Vettel will probably by happy with their grid position for tomorrow's 2021 Portuguese Formula One Grand Prix.
Vettel out at last out-qualified his Aston Martin team mate Lance Stroll while Sergio Perez only was 0.1 sec. slower than his very quick and 8 years younger team mate Verstappen.
Sainz out-qualified his new still new Ferrari team mate for the first time as Ferrari driver and Bottas even was able to break down an almost fairy tale story of Hamilton scoring his 100th pole on the day former pole king Ayrton Senna lost his life back in 1994.
The rest of the starting grid you can find below.
F1 Starting Grid 2021 Portuguese GP
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Lap Time | Pole gap | Tyres |
| 1 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:18,348 | M (C2) | |
| 2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:18,355 | +0,007s | M (C2) |
| 3 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:18,746 | +0,398s | M (C2) |
| 4 | 11 | Sergio Pérez | Red Bull | 1:18,890 | +0,542s | M (C2) |
| 5 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 1:19,039 | +0,691s | S (C3) |
| 6 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 1:19,042 | +0,694s | S (C3) |
| 7 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1:19,116 | +0,768s | S (C3) |
| 8 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:19,306 | +0,958s | M (C2) |
| 9 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 1:19,475 | +1,127s | S (C3) |
| 10 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 1:19,659 | +1,311s | S (C3) |
| 11 | 63 | George Russell | Williams | 1:19,109 | +0,761s | Free |
| 12 | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 1:19,216 | +0,868s | Free |
| 13 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 1:19,456 | +1,108s | Free |
| 14 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 1:19,463 | +1,115s | Free |
| 15 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Alfa Romeo | 1:19,812 | +1,464s | Free |
| 16 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | 1:19,839 | +1,491s | Free |
| 17 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 1:19,913 | +1,565s | Free |
| 18 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 1:20,285 | +1,937s | Free |
| 19 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 1:20,452 | +2,104s | Free |
| 20 | 9 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | 1:20,912 | +2,564s | Free |
2021 Portuguese F1 GP Race Strategy
The 66-lap Portuguese Grand Prix is likely to be a one-stopper, for two key reasons: firstly because the time lost in the pit lane here is too costly to make a two-stopper work, and secondly because wear and degradation on all the compounds seems quite low. With the Portimao circuit being reasonably wide and presenting plenty of overtaking opportunities (as proved by last year's race) the tyre nomination here should allow the drivers to push hard and deliver a lively race.
The low wear and degradation should also create quite a wide pit stop window, meaning that the teams will be able to adapt their strategies to take advantage of the best possible moment to make their stops, ensuring track position. As usual, the timing of the stops will also depend on track and air temperatures – which are likely to be similar to today, or perhaps slightly warmer.
2021 Portuguese F1 GP Race Notes
- Valtteri Bottas claimed pole ahead of his Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton, with Red Bull third and fourth. The Mercedes drivers were the only ones to select the P Zero Yellow medium tyre for their final runs in Q3, but they both set their fastest times on their first runs, using the Red soft.
- During the Q2 session, which determines which starting tyres the top 10 on the grid will use, most drivers headed out on the medium, with just six starting the session on the P Zero Red soft. In the end, five drivers in the top of the grid will start on the medium tomorrow including the top four: both Mercedes, both Red Bulls, and the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.
- The gusting winds seen yesterday persisted today influencing the qualifying sessions and slowing down the track towards the end of the hour. Weather conditions were also similar to yesterday, with qualifying ending in temperatures of 19 degrees ambient and 34 degrees on track.
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Once again we have a boring F1, so why not be honest and call it Mercedes F1? After all we have had Clio Championships, TVR., and so on, and given the number of Mercedes powered cars it would be an easy transition. Then a fixed chassis could be supplied so within a year or two it would be up to each driver to get the best out of the cars. I think the E-Championship has, in effect, one chassis etc.
David, a good example of fast, competitive single chassis racing is IndyCar. Bash away at it being a US series, and no it is not F1, but it is fast, fun racing at a strong combination of tracks. Annual budget: $7-8 million per car for a winning team.
Boring. Put them all in similar cars and we my have a true competition.
The F1 cars all look so similar now that we may as well have a one-make series but, like Indy, have a choice of engines. It would be better still to get away from one-make of tyres. The Indy Lights cars look better than the Indy cars with their 'windscreens'.
Once again Lewis Hamilton dominates F1 race. Even though he qualified second, he drove his Mercedes over around and through the competition. Max Verstappen managed to wedge between Hamilton and Body as to prevent a Mercedes 1,2 finish.
I think that in the table, you may have accidentally put the top 10 tyres used to get the times in Q3, rather than the starting tyres as decided by fastest laps in Q2.
Though it worth mentioning as your information is normally 'spot-on' (thanks!).
Thank for the feedback! We fixed the errors.
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