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(Motorsport-Total.com) – Sebastian Vettel played one of the leading roles in the third free practice session of the Portuguese Grand Prix. But not from a sporting point of view, because the Ferrari driver finished in eleventh position, 0.456 seconds behind his teammates. But at the end of the session in Portimao, it caused a premature termination.
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Max Verstappen is a serious rival for Mercedes Focus
Two minutes before the scheduled finish, Vettel ran over a gutter deck at the exit of Turn 14, which then went off. FIA race director Michael Masi had to interrupt prematurely for safety reasons and was unable to reopen the session. A small part of Vettel’s Ferrari flew into the situation.
Valtteri Bottas secured the fastest time in the third practice session for the third time. The Finn drove 1: 16,654 minutes on the softest tire compound and relegated teammates Lewis Hamilton (+0.026) and Max Verstappen (Red Bull / + 0.158) to the places. Verstappen takes value from the fact that he set his best time on the harder medium tires.
Because the track was no longer open after the red flag, one or the other driver could no longer run a qualifying simulation. The two McLaren drivers, Carlos Sainz (7./+0.584) and Lando Norris (9./+0.824), for example, had just lifted a new set of soft pirellis when the pit exit closed.
Tire temperatures remain a sore subject
Daniel Ricciardo (Renault) also wanted to go out again because his DRS had not worked during the race and he could not fold the movable rear wing. He was stopped at the pit exit when someone interrupted him. In the end, the Australian finished 14th, 1,281 seconds behind.
The deciding factor at Portimao remains getting the hard tires (Pirelli offers C1 to C3) up to temperature. Sometimes two warm-up laps were necessary for this in training sessions. Hamilton was once off the track at Turn 8, and Alexander Albon (5th / Red Bull / + 0.463) vowed: “We are not warming up properly. There is just no grip.”
But with that he was in good company. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari / + 0.575) also made a mistake at Turn 14. However, the uptrend continued with sixth place. Monza winner Pierre Gasly was even stronger: fourth place, 0.276 seconds ago, and his last lap did not improve anything except several “pink” mini-sectors.
Tracking limits are still an issue
Racing Point had a hard time warming up the tires. After the first race on Medium, the car was modified to improve the situation. Because the last race fell into the water, Sergio Pérez was eighth (+0.643). His teammate Lance Stroll was 16 years old, a second and a half behind.
However, there were problems with the Williams team: Firstly, Nicholas Latifi (19./+1,743) reported that he was getting quite warm left in his seat. Possibly an electrical problem after a chassis change overnight. Then George Russell (15./+1,378) returned to the pits with a brake plate. “That was a great one,” he said on the radio.
The theater around the limits of the track is not over. Although FIA race director Michael Masi reacted to the driver’s report on Friday night and now counts the curbs instead of the white line, there were again canceled lap times on the assembly line. Example: eight times they left between 11:46 and 11:58 a.m. (local time) only …
(F1 paddock live: qualifying saturday in Portimao)
