2020 Portuguese Grand Prix

The 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Heineken Grande Prémio de Portugal 2020) was a Formula One motor race that was held on 25 October 2020 at the Algarve International Circuit in Portimão, Portugal. It was the first Portuguese Grand Prix held since 1996 and the first time held at the Algarve International Circuit. The race was the twelfth round of the 2020 Formula One World Championship.

2020 Portuguese Grand Prix
Race 12 of 17[lower-alpha 1] in the 2020 Formula One World Championship ← Previous race Next race →
Layout of the Algarve International Circuit
Race details
Date	25 October 2020
Official name	Formula 1 Heineken Grande Prémio de Portugal 2020
Location	Autódromo Internacional do Algarve Portimão, Algarve, Portugal
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.653 km (2.891 mi)
Distance	66 laps, 306.826 km (190.653 mi)
Weather	Cloudy
Pole position
Driver	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Time	1:16.652
Fastest lap
Driver	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Time	1:18.750 on lap 63 (lap record)
Podium
First	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Second	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes
Third	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda
Lap leaders

Background

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

The 2020 Formula One World Championship was heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the originally planned Grands Prix were cancelled or postponed, prompting the FIA to draft a new calendar. The Portuguese Grand Prix did not feature on the original 2020 schedule, but was added in August 2020 in order to maximise the number of races in the season.[1]

Up to 45,000 fans were initially expected to attend the race.[2] However, due to a surge of cases attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, the number of fans allowed to attend the race was later reduced to 27,500.[3]

Entrants

Ten teams (each representing a different constructor) each entered two drivers. The drivers and teams were the same as those on the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for either the race or practice.[4]

Tyres

Sole Formula One tyre manufacturer Pirelli brought their C1, C2 and C3 compound tyres for teams to use in the race, the three hardest compounds available.[5] Pirelli also tested the 2021 tyre compounds during the first 30 minutes of the second practice session.[6]

Practice

The first practice session ran without incidents and ended with Valtteri Bottas fastest ahead of Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen.[7] The second practice session saw two red flags; the first when Pierre Gasly's AlphaTauri caught fire, the second when Lance Stroll and Verstappen collided. The session ended with Bottas fastest ahead of Verstappen and McLaren's Lando Norris.[8] The race stewards investigated the Stroll–Verstappen collision and took no action.[9] Following the collision, Verstappen referred to Stroll as a "mongol" on the team radio to his engineer, a comment which was condemned by the Mongolian government as being offensive.[10] The third practice session was red flagged in the final minute of the session after Sebastian Vettel ran over a drain cover. which subsequently came loose.[11] The session ended with Bottas fastest ahead of Hamilton and Verstappen.[12]

Qualifying

The start of qualifying was delayed to allow track repairs to be completed. The repairs were deemed necessary after a drain cover came loose at the end of the final practice session.[11]

Qualifying classification

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Qualifying times			Final grid
				Q1	Q2	Q3
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:16.828	1:16.824	1:16.652	1
2	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:16.945	1:16.466	1:16.754	2
3	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda	1:16.879	1:17.038	1:16.904	3
4	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:17.421	1:17.367	1:17.090	4
5	11	Sergio Pérez	Racing Point-BWT Mercedes	1:17.370	1:17.129	1:17.223	5
6	23	Alexander Albon	Red Bull Racing-Honda	1:17.435	1:17.411	1:17.437	6
7	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren-Renault	1:17.627	1:17.183	1:17.520	7
8	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Renault	1:17.547	1:17.321	1:17.525	8
9	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Honda	1:17.209	1:17.367	1:17.803	9
10	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	1:17.621	1:17.481	No time	10
11	31	Esteban Ocon	Renault	1:17.775	1:17.614	N/A	11
12	18	Lance Stroll	Racing Point-BWT Mercedes	1:17.667	1:17.626	N/A	12
13	26	Daniil Kvyat	AlphaTauri-Honda	1:17.841	1:17.728	N/A	13
14	63	George Russell	Williams-Mercedes	1:17.931	1:17.788	N/A	14
15	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:17.446	1:17.919	N/A	15
16	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari	1:18.201	N/A	N/A	16
17	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari	1:18.323	N/A	N/A	17
18	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	1:18.364	N/A	N/A	18
19	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1:18.508	N/A	N/A	19
20	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	1:18.777	N/A	N/A	20
107% time: 1:22.205
Source:[13][14]

Race

On the first lap, Pérez and Verstappen made contact, forcing the former to pit and dropping him down the order. Pérez would eventually recover to finish seventh. The opening few laps of the race were chaotic as the drivers who started on the medium tyres (Hamilton, Bottas, Leclerc) fell behind those who started on the soft tyre, and so after the second lap Sainz was leading the race from seventh on the grid until being passed by the faster cars from lap 6 onwards. On lap 18 Stroll tried to pass Norris around the outside of Turn 1, but Stroll misjudged the manoeuvre and collided with Norris resulting in a 5-second penalty for him.

Hamilton took his 92nd race win, passing seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher's record for most Grand Prix wins.[15] He finished ahead of his teammate Bottas by 25.592s, the second-biggest winning margin of the season, and Verstappen in 3rd position, making his 40th appearance on the podium.

Race classification

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	66	1:29:56.828	1	26^1
2	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	66	+25.592	2	18
3	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda	66	+34.508	3	15
4	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	66	+1:05.312	4	12
5	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Honda	65	+1 lap	9	10
6	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren-Renault	65	+1 lap	7	8
7	11	Sergio Pérez	Racing Point-BWT Mercedes	65	+1 lap	5	6
8	31	Esteban Ocon	Renault	65	+1 lap	11	4
9	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	65	+1 lap	10	2
10	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	65	+1 lap	15	1
11	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari	65	+1 lap	16
12	23	Alexander Albon	Red Bull Racing-Honda	65	+1 lap	6
13	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Renault	65	+1 lap	8
14	63	George Russell	Williams-Mercedes	65	+1 lap	14
15	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari	65	+1 lap	17
16	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	65	+1 lap	19
17	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	65	+1 lap^2	18
18	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	64	+2 laps	20
19	26	Daniil Kvyat	AlphaTauri-Honda	64	+2 laps	13
Ret	18	Lance Stroll	Racing Point-BWT Mercedes	51	Collision damage	12
Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) – 1:18.750 (lap 63)
Source:[14][16][17]

Notes

• ^1 – Includes one point for fastest lap.
• ^2 – Romain Grosjean finished 16th on the track, but received a five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits.[16]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Lewis Hamilton 256 2 Valtteri Bottas 179 3 Max Verstappen 162 4 Daniel Ricciardo 80 3 5 Charles Leclerc 75 Source:[18]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos. Constructor Points 1 Mercedes 435 2 Red Bull Racing-Honda 226 3 Racing Point-BWT Mercedes 126[lower-alpha 2] 4 McLaren-Renault 124 5 Renault 120 Source:[18]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

Notes

1. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic saw several Grands Prix cancelled or rescheduled. The revised calendar consisted of seventeen races.
2. Racing Point was deducted 15 points after a protest from Renault was upheld regarding the legality of their car.[19]

References

1. "Nurburgring, Portugal and Imola races added to F1 2020 calendar". Sky Sports. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
2. "F1 Portuguese GP expect 45,000 fans amid "crazy" ticket sales". Autosport.com. 20 September 2020. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
3. Luke Smith (20 October 2020). "Portuguese GP attendance cut back due to COVID restrictions". Motorsport.com. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
4. "2020 Portuguese Grand Prix – Entry List" (PDF). Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 22 October 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
5. "Tyre compound choices and set allocations for last seven Grands Prix of 2020". Pirelli.com. 9 September 2020. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
6. "Pirelli to test 2021 prototype tyres in Portugal GP practice". Formula1.com. 5 September 2020. Retrieved 5 September 2020.
7. "FP1: Bottas leads Hamilton as the drivers get their first taste of the Portimao track". Formula1.com. 23 October 2020. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
8. "FP2: Bottas quickest again as Verstappen and Stroll collide in Portimao". Formula1.com. 23 October 2020. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
9. "Stewards take no further action over 'unnecessary' Verstappen-Stroll FP2 crash". Formula1.com. 23 October 2020. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
10. Boxall-Legge, Jake (31 October 2020). "Mongolian government writes to Red Bull over Verstappen comments". autosport.com. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
11. Smith, Luke (24 October 2020). "Start of F1 Portuguese GP qualifying delayed due to track repairs". Autosport.com. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
12. "FP3: Bottas tops final practice at Portimao with Hamilton, Verstappen and Gasly close behind". Formula1.com. 24 October 2020. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
13. "Formula 1 Heineken Grande Prémio de Portugal 2020 – Qualifying". Formula1.com. 24 October 2020. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
14. "Formula 1 Heineken Grande Prémio de Portugal 2020 – Starting Grid". Formula1.com. 25 October 2020. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
15. "Hamilton takes record-breaking 92nd win with dominant drive in Portuguese GP". Formula1.com. 25 October 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
16. "Formula 1 Heineken Grande Prémio de Portugal 2020 – Race Result". Formula1.com. 25 October 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
17. "Formula 1 Heineken Grande Prémio de Portugal 2020 – Fastest Laps". Formula1.com. 25 October 2020. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
18. "Portugal 2020 - Championship". statsf1.com. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
19. "Racing Point deducted 15 points and fined heavily as Renault protest into car legality upheld". formula1.com. 7 August 2020. Retrieved 7 August 2020.

External links