2021 Portuguese GP - Algarve International Circuit [Portimao]

https://amp.nextgen-auto.com/IMG/arton151260.jpg

Renamed the Algarve International Circuit this season, located in the fishing coastal town of Portimao. It is undulating on the straights with crazy slopes into corners like the Nordschleife, fast-flowing corners like Spa, a couple of tight chicanes like Monaco and likely to be smooth and less grippy like Sochi. Like Mugello, Portimao is a very wide track, hence overtaking shall be just as easy as is typical in Mugello.

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We come into this race with Mercedes and Redbull with one race win apiece, with Mercedes ahead in the constructors by 7 points and Hamilton ahead of Verstappen by a solitary point.

Mercedes won this race last season with both cars on the podium and Verstappen's Redbull third. Hence this is typically a Mercedes track. Hence, if Redbull wins here convincingly, that would be a clear indication of their dominance for the rest of the season. Seeing how close Mercedes were to Redbull at Imola, l would think Redbull have their hands full for this race. A Mercedes win would suggest that they have regained lost grounds to Redbull.

Clearly, it is too close to call at the moment. Flip a coin to guess the winner of this race.

What about Imola? What have we learnt from that race?

Firstly, Imola showed how much the shorter pre-season testing has impacted drivers that have moved to new teams this season. The old school layout of Imola combined with a wet rain-drenched track showed how much the newbies have to learn of their new cars. On the dry qualifying day, Perez shorn with a 2nd place grid position beating Verstappen who has never been out-qualified by a teammate since Ricciardo, three seasons ago. But the wet race saw him struggle from the start.

Secondly, Mercedes was clearly faster than Redbull at Imola. Poor strategy by Mercedes and the blue flag incident that saw Hamiton slide off the track, gave Verstappen an easier race win than should have been.

Attachment 2094
[Portimao at the top, Barcelona at the bottom]

This pic above also shows how very similar the track layout of Portimao is to Barcelona. Though Barcelona does not have the undulations of Portimao or the tough cambers at the chicanes, the straights have a lot in common. Hence, whichever team that dominates here this weekend, would most likely do so at the next race at Barcelona.