Lewis Hamilton has expressed enthusiasm for the “massively challenging” Portimao circuit but admitted he needs to work out “where I went wrong” with his Mercedes car’s set-up in Practice Two on Friday.
Hamilton was among the drivers who witnessed the launch of the undulating track by F1 when it previously tested the track in the Algarve in 2009, however, that was in wet conditions and in an era when the cars were not as fast as they are now.
More than a decade on, and with the circuit making its full Grand Prix debut as a race venue this weekend, Hamilton was one of many drivers to give the 4.7km Portuguese venue a green light after Friday’s two practice sessions.
“Incredibly difficult circuit, massively challenging,” says the Mercedes driver of the layout.
“The undulations are incredible and there are a lot of places where you just can’t see where you’re going.
“The exit of Turn Eight – you’re looking at the sky for a period of time and you have no idea what’s beyond the hill. Also into [Turn] 11 you come in and you don’t know where you are and all of a sudden it arrives at you out of nowhere.
“The surface is very smooth so you see a lot of people making mistakes, sliding and spinning, so it’s not been an easy day.”
Hamilton was lucky and careful to a crash but the six-time champion and runaway title leader of Formula 1 this season only managed to finish eighth fastest on the afternoon timesheet after two red flags disrupted the session.
His team-mate Valtteri Bottas continues his impressive form during Practice tests and was the fastest, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen the second fastest on slower tyres than the Mercedes.
Hamilton admitted he has work to do to hone the set-up of his W11 after a wrong turn into the second session.
“P1 was probably the better session for me even though the car didn’t feel that great, then we made some changes and the car felt pretty terrible in P2,” he says.
“So I need to take a few steps back to see where I went wrong with the setup and see if we can improve it for tomorrow.”
His teammate Valterri Bottas topped both sessions for Mercedes and says: “It reminded me a lot of when we went to Sochi or Austin for the first time. You lose the grip pretty quickly, so that’s why we saw quite a few spins.”
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