Formula 1 Heineken Grande Prémio De Portugal 2021 Preview

The third round of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship sees the sport travel to Portugal for the Portimao Grand Prix for the second time in two seasons. Last year’s GP was the first time that Portugal had hosted an F1 race since the 1996 season, where 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve of Williams-Renault won the race.

Lewis Hamilton won last year’s Portimao Grand Prix which will go down in folklore, as the British driver broke Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of 91 race wins on his way to equalling the German’s record of seven world titles, the most in F1 history.

Last year’s race was a dramatic one, due to the rain at the start of the Grand Prix, which saw drastic changes to the grid following two laps of pure drama, as Carlos Sainz who had qualified in seventh in the McLaren-Renault managed to take the lead from Valtteri Bottas who had managed to overtake Hamilton.

However, Sainz was soon caught up by the quicker cars in the race by lap six and the predictable podium of the 2020 season in Hamilton, Bottas and Max Verstappen was soon re-united, with the Stevenage born driver lapping everyone up to fourth place, with Charles LeClerc in the Ferrari finishing one minute and five seconds behind the Mercedes GP driver, 13 seconds away from being lapped.

Qualifying will be vital going into this weekend’s race, as it is advantageous to be on the outside of the track at Portimao going into the first corner, due to its swooping apex.

It is expected to be a very close fight to the line between Verstappen and Hamilton once again, as the Dutchman and Brit vie and fight for every advantage that they can get in the Drivers Championship this season, as shown by the fact that Hamilton currently leads on the standings via a bonus point for the fastest lap of the race he set at Imola last time out.

In the last qualifying session that Portimao GP hosted, Hamilton edged out Bottas by 0.102 seconds and Verstappen by 0.252, which was a very good effort by Red Bull’s main driver considering the noticeable gap in quality between their car and the Mercedes last year.

This track has been used for Moto GP races in recent years, due to its long straights and tight corners throughout the circuit layout. As it stands, Verstappen and Hamilton have one pole position each, following the Dutchman qualifying in third place in the last round at Imola, although the Red Bull man admitted that he made mistakes during his final qualifying lap which saw him miss out on pole by 0.087 seconds and for that reason as well as the pace Verstappen has shown so far this season, he is expected to get on pole once again.

Pole Position: Max Verstappen – 10/11 2. Lewis Hamilton – 7/4 3. Valtteri Bottas 13/2 4. Sergio Perez – 8/1 - Click on each individual link to claim these bets in your bet slip!

We can firmly expect more of the same thrills and excitement that the first two races have given us, as the battle between Verstappen and Hamilton has been electrifying. They are both priced at 11/8 to win the race on Sunday, as there has been nothing to separate the two out on track this season apart from Hamilton's bonus point for the fastest lap of the race at Imola, as mentioned above.

Despite starting third on the grid at Imola with teammate Sergio Perez qualifying in second place, Verstappen blitzed Hamilton off the start line on what was a wet track by starting in second gear to reduce wheel spin off the line, this gave the Dutchman a lead going into the first corner which Hamilton never regained.

Hamilton, however, did remain in hot pursuit of Verstappen as the track began to dry out, but, a rare error by the seven-time World Champion after the two had pitted for slicks put the win on a plate for the Dutchman, as the Mercedes man ran wide off the track whilst trying to pass a backmarker in George Russell and damaged his front wing by hitting a barrier which would’ve completely ruined his race, but, a crash between Russell and Bottas just moments later gifted him an unlikely lifeline as the race was suspended, meaning that the field would be regrouped upon the restart and with a new front wing, Hamilton would start back in eighth and eventually manage to recover up to second place.

Lando Norris managed to earn himself a place on the podium in Imola thanks to both superb driving and taking advantage of circumstances, such as Perez spinning several times, as well as Bottas being completely off form throughout the weekend. This was just Norris’ second ever podium after last year's opener at Austria, meaning that this was the first time two British drivers had been on a podium since China in 2012, where ironically Nico Rosberg won Mercedes their first race in 57 years, ahead of Jenson Button and Hamilton who finished second and third for McLaren-Mercedes.

Norris is priced at 28/1 to win the race, but he is also priced at 7/1 to finish on the podium, with teammate Daniel Riccardo to finish in the top six. The Australian who was formerly Verstappen’s teammate at Red Bull managed to finish sixth place at Imola and looks to be getting into the swing of things at his new team following his transfer from Renault.

Bottas had a tough time out at Imola, having been crashed out of the race by Russell as mentioned above, but the flying Finn did give a good account of himself last time the sport travelled to Portugal and showed his capability at Bahrain on the opening weekend with a solid third-place finish. The former Williams man is priced at 8/1 to win the Portuguese GP, although interestingly, he is also priced at 9/4 to finish on the podium alongside Verstappen and Hamilton.

Red Bull’s Perez has a lot of questions to answer, following a rough start to life at his new team, where he has shown a lot of promise without getting the results. The former Racing Point driver will be desperate to impress this time out in Portugal, as he did last year with a fifth-place finish for his old team.

The 31-year-old is eighth in the drivers’ standings following his fifth-place finish in Bahrain having started from the pit lane, and following a series of errors at Imola which saw the Mexican finish in 11th place, he will be expected to bounce back, otherwise, he may draw unwanted comparisons to the likes of Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly who both struggled to perform as Red Bull’s second driver.

Perez is priced at 7/1 to win the race in Portugal or 11/2 to get the fastest lap of the race.

Prediction: 1. Verstappen 2. Hamilton 3. Bottas 4. Perez