Bottas tops opening Portuguese GP practice
Make that seven track cleaning opening practice sessions in a row for Valtteri Bottas, who has once again started a weekend strongly.
Bottas lapped at 1m18.410s on Medium tires that was 0.339s ahead of Mercedes F1 teammate Lewis Hamilton in Practice 1 of the Portuguese GP in Portimao.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was third on hard tires, some seven-tenths down on Bottas. The Dutchman was the first of a number of drivers who spun in the tricky conditions.
Charles Leclerc was an encouraging fourth for Ferrari and just eight-tenths off the pace running the Scuderia’s latest upgrade package.
The second Red Bull of Alex Albon rounded out the top five positions, ahead of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr., Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and the Alfa Romeo of Kimi Raikkonen.
Daniel Ricciardo and Pierre Gasly completed the top-10.
Practice 1 Results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | CAR | TIME | GAP | LAPS |
| 1 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:18.410 | +0.000s | 35 |
| 2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:18.749 | +0.339s | 35 |
| 3 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing Honda | 1:19.191 | +0.781s | 32 |
| 4 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:19.309 | +0.899s | 33 |
| 5 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Red Bull Racing Honda | 1:19.365 | +0.955s | 34 |
| 6 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | McLaren Renault | 1:19.441 | +1.031s | 42 |
| 7 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point BWT Mercedes | 1:19.907 | +1.497s | 31 |
| 8 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari | 1:19.954 | +1.544s | 34 |
| 9 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 1:20.058 | +1.648s | 27 |
| 10 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri Honda | 1:20.124 | +1.714s | 29 |
| 11 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:20.200 | +1.790s | 37 |
| 12 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren Renault | 1:20.207 | +1.797s | 29 |
| 13 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | AlphaTauri Honda | 1:20.278 | +1.868s | 32 |
| 14 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas Ferrari | 1:20.846 | +2.436s | 28 |
| 15 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point BWT Mercedes | 1:20.954 | +2.544s | 32 |
| 16 | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari | 1:21.009 | +2.599s | 35 |
| 17 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas Ferrari | 1:21.169 | +2.759s | 31 |
| 18 | 63 | George Russell | Williams Mercedes | 1:21.374 | +2.964s | 31 |
| 19 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Renault | 1:21.673 | +3.263s | 31 |
| 20 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams Mercedes | 1:22.054 | +3.644s | 34 |