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
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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
Mercedes
Time 1:16.652
Fastest lap
Driver Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
Time 1:18.750 on lap 63 (lap record)
Podium
First
Mercedes
Second
Mercedes
Third
Red Bull Racing-Honda

Background

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
See also: 2020 Formula One World Championship § Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal

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
Further information: 2020 Formula One World Championship § Entries

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
See also: Formula One 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 1 261
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 lap2 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
  • 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.
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