As usual, it was a Mercedes that was fastest in the first practice session for this weekend’s 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix, with Valtteri Bottas doing the honors at the Autodromo do Algarve in Portimao, nipping his teammate, six-time defending world champion, Lewis Hamilton, by 0.339 seconds – both were set on the medium tires
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was in his usual third position – 0.781 seconds behind Bottas – albeit on hard tires.
Portimao is the site of Portugal’s first Formula One race since 1996 [Estoril] due to the havoc wreaked by the Covid-19 pandemic on the Formula 1 calendar this year.
