[Official] Portuguese Grand Prix 2020: Grand Prix Weekend Thread - Round 12 of 17

[bjohnsonsmith]

Wrong thread.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Sorry happened again.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Sorry happened again.

All the excitement of FCY's!

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

All the excitement of FCY's!

Tell me about it, 6 and the pace car ran out of fuel.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

I think this might be in the wrong thread?

Yes, this is an F1 thread not a motorsport thread.

I’m so witty, intelligent and out there.

[S griffin]

Great to see Bottas get the better of Hamilton in the early laps, but once again, nothing getting in the way of Lewis winning, a record breaking one too


Great first laps by Sainz and Raikkonen in the damp. Just what F1 needed and their battle later on was exciting and fair


As for Racing Point, the incident between Checo and Max was just a racing incident. But what Checo did to Gasly later on was at best marginal, at worst very naughty. Still a great recovery through the field by Checo, shows once again how much of a gamble RP are taking replacing him with Vettel. As for Stroll's move on Norris was enough of a risky move without turning into Lando


Nice to see Russell running competitively at the front, what has he got to do to finish in the points? And another great drive by Leclerc too



All in all a great first GP at Portimao and a great return of the Portuguese GP. Let's hope we don't have to wait another 24 years for the next one

[Greem]

Originally Posted by Anyopenroad

Be better? It's not like Mercedes have some magic sauce. They work to the same rules. They're just better at every single aspect of making and running an F1 car. I think it's awesome, a privilege to watch,

Amen, sister/brother. It is indeed a privilege, but tall poppy syndrome means some people won't realise that for another 20+ years.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Great to see Bottas get the better of Hamilton in the early laps, but once again, nothing getting in the way of Lewis winning, a record breaking one too


Great first laps by Sainz and Raikkonen in the damp. Just what F1 needed and their battle later on was exciting and fair


As for Racing Point, the incident between Checo and Max was just a racing incident. But what Checo did to Gasly later on was at best marginal, at worst very naughty. Still a great recovery through the field by Checo, shows once again how much of a gamble RP are taking replacing him with Vettel. As for Stroll's move on Norris was enough of a risky move without turning into Lando


Nice to see Russell running competitively at the front, what has he got to do to finish in the points? And another great drive by Leclerc too



All in all a great first GP at Portimao and a great return of the Portuguese GP. Let's hope we don't have to wait another 24 years for the next one

Great to see the records tumble this weekend. 92 wins. Longest SG post.

[S griffin]

Yes, and long may these records continue.

Although if only Bottas could find that bit extra within him, it would be even more interesting still. I hope we have plenty more to talk about come the end of the season. Even with the Merc domination, there are plenty of stories up and down the field

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Yes, and long may these records continue.

[chillibowl]

Kimi's first lap.

https://streamable.com/o2513i

[Adam43]

Not bad, not bad at all

[Taxi645]

Originally Posted by S griffin

All in all a great first GP at Portimao and a great return of the Portuguese GP. Let's hope we don't have to wait another 24 years for the next one

Agree. It would almost be criminal not to come back here soon.


Even with cars which have difficulty following each other, there were very nice battles over multiple corners. Like COTA there was some room to take different lines and stay in cleaner air for a larger part of the corner. Imagine this track with the 2022 aero regulations!




Bottas to aggressive on his tyres in the first part of the stint (as per usual).


I felt the Max-Stroll incident may have cost RB time to really understand the tires this weekend. On the softs, Max first stint went pretty pear shaped very quickly.


Good drives from Perez, Ocon, Gasly. Also the Ferrari's found quite some pace the last few races. Vettel also having decent race pace in his 2nd stint. A shame he somehow ends up so far back on the grid.

[S griffin]

I am sure we will be back here again next season, with a bit of luck


It's not the best circuit in terms of layout, it does have some interesting features and plenty of places to overtake if you can get close enough. I think this of one of the best tracks we've had for a while. We need to have cars that run closer to each other, but either way you get overtaking, especially down the pit straight. Let's see how long this circuit stays


Shame Bottas strategy didn't work out, but it was good to see him leading for a bit. He can do better though


Shame about Max's incident with Stroll, but the team did well considering. Made the wrong tyre choice at the start, yet still had enough to finish third


Good drive with Perez, but then we are used to it. Drives by Ocon and Gasly and others were nothing less than decent. Ferrari aren't doing that badly, but they are too often finding themselves in the midfield, at least Leclerc is driving to his maximum to get some results. For me Vettel is not doing that and he has let his head drop, which is why he's been so poor this season, great talent he is. It's no wonder he has been shown the door.

[Taxi645]

Originally Posted by S griffin

For me Vettel is not doing that and he has let his head drop, which is why he's been so poor this season, great talent he is. It's no wonder he has been shown the door.

To be honest, looking at his second stint, I didn't have the impression that he was letting his head down at all.



https://www.racefans.net/2020/10/25/...mes-and-tyres/


From lap 18 to 66 his pace was almost equal to Leclerc even without being in clean air as much as Charles. I'm just surprised the pace difference in qualy is so much bigger.


On Verstappen's soft tyre first stint troubles:

http://en.mclarenf-1.com/index.php?p...wis%20Hamilton

In lap 5 Verstappen did a blistering 1.21.9. A time the Mercedes cars only matched from lap 8 onwards. Did Max overdrive his tires, ruining his stint?

[gert]

Originally Posted by Taxi645

On Verstappen's soft tyre first stint troubles:

http://en.mclarenf-1.com/index.php?p...wis%20Hamilton

In lap 5 Verstappen did a blistering 1.21.9. A time the Mercedes cars only matched from lap 8 onwards. Did Max overdrive his tires, ruining his stint?

Would't that be down to the difference between soft (Verstappen) and mediums (Mercedes) ?

I think the red tires were pretty useless at Portimao, and would have been best avoided.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

Kimi's first lap.

https://streamable.com/o2513i

Absolutely fantastic. What is interesting is that it really is not first corner "luck" but rather making it work for the rest of the lap.

Richard

[chillibowl]

in fairness though, Max seemed to extract a lot more from the softs then anyone else did. rather he might not have run the longest stint on the softs but he did well with the 20odd laps he ran on them.

by comparison, Sainz and more so Kimi displayed a serious drop off in pace after the first several laps.

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by Richard Casto

Absolutely fantastic. What is interesting is that it really is not first corner "luck" but rather making it work for the rest of the lap.

Richard

right!

not luck at all. sure he had the softs which provided a lot more grip at the beginning, but the touch to find the grip and the vision to weave through a field of cars that lacked grip and without making any contact...that really was a tremendous lap!

i am hard pressed to think of a better first lap unless it came from a top car that found themselves out of position after quali?

[Taxi645]

Originally Posted by gert

Would't that be down to the difference between soft (Verstappen) and mediums (Mercedes) ?

I think the red tires were pretty useless at Portimao, and would have been best avoided.

I'm not sure. Gasly did 28 laps on the softs and Passed Kimi, Norris, Ricciardo and Sainz on them.


I think the teams had relatively little long stint running. Perhaps they were caught off guard by the unusual conditions and didn't put enough emphases on sparing the fronts with their race set up.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Richard Casto

Absolutely fantastic. What is interesting is that it really is not first corner "luck" but rather making it work for the rest of the lap.

Richard

Inside, outside, all very clean too.

[steve_r]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

right!

not luck at all. sure he had the softs which provided a lot more grip at the beginning, but the touch to find the grip and the vision to weave through a field of cars that lacked grip and without making any contact...that really was a tremendous lap!

i am hard pressed to think of a better first lap unless it came from a top car that found themselves out of position after quali?

Everyone will remember Senna lap 1 at Donnington, but this is right up there with that.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

Kimi's first lap.

https://streamable.com/o2513i

A joy to watch. Must have brought back some memories. I bet he had a big smile on his face inside that helmet......

[TrapezeArtist]

Portimao was better than I expected it to be. I thought it was going to be a single overtaking point per lap. But there were a number of passes somewhere else (I couldn't get my head round the numbering system) and some great side-by-side stuff. I don't agree with the anti-DRS mob. DRS is necessary to overcome the fundamental aero problem with F1 cars, and many of the passes and failed passes at the end of the straight were not simple breeze-pasts.

Sorry to bring it up again, but track limits will be a problem until either:

• Wide kerbs and tarmac run-offs are eliminated

or

• Drivers are penalised every time at every corner (provided they're not pushed off by another driver)

[Richard C]

I was impressed with how much racing we saw. I don't know if that is inherent to the track, or somewhat driven somehow by the fresh surface (not particularly rubbered in within the primary racing line, so grip is generally equal over the entire surface giving more opportunities for alternate lines). I also like the elevation changes. I hope this can be included in the schedule in the future.

Richard