F1 Portuguese GP Live Updates - Friday practice
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By: Jake Boxall-Legge
Summary
Status: Stopped
That rounds up our live text coverage on Friday practice ahead of the Portuguese GP and if the next two days at Portimao are anything like today's action then we are in for a treat. Final practice begins at 11:00 local time (11:00 BST) so until then have a peaceful evening. Cheers!
Plenty of talking points to come from Friday practice, which certainly wasn't the case at the last race given the zero Friday running at the Nurburgring, so there is lots more to come from the paddock at the Algarve circuit.
So Bottas tops both sessions today but that hardly tells the whole story. Gasly suffers a fiery premature end to FP2, Verstappen and Stroll clash, and - best of all for some of us - 2021 Pirelli prototype tyre testing. Something for everyone.
Practice starts are now being completed on the starting grid, which are always good for a late photo opportunity for those end of day press releases.
Norris duly delivers to go third fastest for McLaren with a 1m18.743s. Bottas keeps top spot from Verstappen though.
Sainz climbs to fourth place with a 1m19.113s while a lot of drivers are having times deleted for exceeding track limits.
With all the action in FP2 the outright lap times have been somewhat secondary but to confirm Bottas is still top with a 1m17.940s from Verstappen's best of 1m18.535s. Just under three minutes to go to change that.
Here we go, lots of cars lined up at pitlane exit with all drivers except Russell on the soft tyres. So we'd expect some late time attacks to come.
The session will restart at 16:22 local time so that leaves eight minutes of running to complete FP2.
TV replays show Verstappen backing off to allow Stroll by at Turn 14 with the Racing Point driver on a flying lap. It looks like Verstappen has assumed Stroll would back off when completing the lap and he was starting his own flying lap but at Turn 1 chaos ensues.
Stroll has hitched a scooter ride to get back to the paddock as his Racing Point car is recovered by the marshals who have been kept busy in this session so far.
Verstappen uses some colourful language to question Stroll's eyesight over his Red Bull team radio. We'll keep out the bad words, but you get the idea.
That collision has been put under investigation by the stewards. It is an incident that is a familiar sight in a race but not in a free practice session.
Stroll had been leading Verstappen into Turn 1 and there is a clear mix-up in intentions as the Red Bull driver bangs into the right-rear of Stroll's car. The clash spat the Canadian driver into the gravel while Verstappen limps back to the pits.
Oh no gentleman, it is only practice! Verstappen and Stroll have collided and that has caused another red flag!
After a little delay the rest of the grid also heads out on the track with the majority on soft tyres. Qualifying simulations incoming? More than likely.
Bottas and Hamilton duly trundle to the pitlane exit to get back into the action immediately. They are followed by Latifi and Giovinazzi.
In the context of the Eifel GP’s no-show Friday practice and the guarantee of no Friday practice at Imola next weekend, teams won’t be fretting too much yet, but having run 2021 prototype tyres for the first third of this session plus this red flag delay FP2 won’t be the productive session teams were hoping for.
No news yet on when this session will restart as Gasly's car is prepared to be taken off the track after its fiery end.
Both Honda-powered Red Bulls were spotted smoking during FP1 but there was no apparent cause for concern. It is too soon to know if those incidents are connected to Gasly's fireball but that will be worrying for both Red Bull and AlphaTauri.
Thankfully Gasly is able to quickly stop and jump out of his AlphaTauri, which has been badly damaged by the fire before marshals can reach the car to put it out.
Kvyat becomes the latest spinner as he goes around but avoids causing any yellow flags as he gets going again very quickly.
Ah, Vettel's progress somewhat halted as he spins at Turn 14. He continues but immediately pits after that moment.
Gasly and Vettel having a little trade-off for the fastest lap time of the session. The Ferrari driver is edging it with a 1m19.175s - 0.022s quicker than the AlphaTauri. Gasly did say his team can target Ferrari in the standings this year.
The softer and more familiar medium tyres produce instant gains as Gasly goes quickest with a 1m20.037s - only to see his lap time deleted for track limits at Turn 4. Vettel gets it right with a 1m19.936s to go fastest.
For the record, Verstappen topped the 2021 tyre test lap times with a late effort of 1m21.575s. That is surely advantage Verstappen for next year, right?
As the clock ticks past that 30-minute mark, the rest of the runners duly pit. Russell, Vettel and Albon are already back out to start their more traditional practice run plans all using the 2020 medium tyres.
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