Mercedes vs Red Bull set to continue at Portimao, Alpine eyes gains

Mercedes and Red Bull have taken one pole position and one victory apiece this year, leading to early suggestions that the two juggernauts will go head-to-head for both championships in 2021.

Mercedes topped the time sheets in both practice sessions at the undulating Portimao circuit in blustery conditions but Max Verstappen once more lingered close behind.

Valtteri Bottas ended FP1 as the fastest driver, while Lewis Hamilton took the glory in the afternoon session – but it’s the Finn who looks to be most impressive in high fuel pace, as he heads the way in the leading group.

Mercedes ran a handful of laps on the Soft compound before switching to the Mediums, while Red Bull solely focused on the yellow-walled tyres. For the purpose of clarity in direct comparisons, the listed long-run pace from Mercedes and Red Bull is based on the times set on the Medium tyres.

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While little splits the Red Bull duo of Verstappen and Sergio Perez, Hamilton languishes behind. The reigning champion was coy after the session, noting that Mercedes “definitely [has] got some time to come from the car and some improvements to make but I’m sure they [Red Bull] have too”.

But it should be noted that in October 2020’s event Hamilton trailed Bottas for much of the weekend before eventually hitting his stride in qualifying – and ultimately dominating the second half of the race.

While the front of the field has so far been a tug-of-war between Mercedes and Red Bull, the same could be said for McLaren and Ferrari, which look to be in a battle to emerge third in the Constructors’ standings when the chequered flag falls on the season later this year.

McLaren was the first of the non-championship contending teams to secure a podium finish last time out in Imola, while Ferrari too enjoyed a respectable race, coming home in fourth and fifth. While it seems both teams don’t have the pace to outright fight at the front of the field, their battle to be the ‘best of the rest’ could produce strong results going forward.

Nevertheless, both will be pleased to have one car faster in long trim than a Mercedes, even if that’s not expected to be the case on Sunday, as Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz lapped faster than Hamilton. Sainz rounded the track in both the Soft and Medium tyres, while Ricciardo used the Mediums. Their respective team-mates both used the Soft tyres, and were slower on average.

AlphaTauri’s pace across the opening two rounds has been impressive, with the Red Bull sister team tipped to be an outside bet for P3 in the championship by some. Despite strong speed in Bahrain and Imola, it has failed to convert it into strong finishes on the road, and already trails McLaren by 33 points.

Alpine has also been left disappointed by its start to the year, picking up its first points of the season last time out in Imola with Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso grabbing ninth and tenth respectively. However, the French squad looked to be much faster on Friday over one lap, while its long-run pace was far from demeaning.

Both of the aforementioned team’s newcomers, Yuki Tsunoda and Fernando Alonso, were separated by very little after their stints on the Medium tyres. Their team-mates on the Soft compound were slower – however the fact that Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon set similar lap times suggests AlphaTauri and Alpine may be a duel on the cards this weekend.

“I think we were happy with the car today,” said Alonso. “Obviously it’s only Friday but we were comfortable from lap one and we didn’t touch the set-up much because everything felt reasonably OK. We tried to do some laps just for me to get used to the track and to know a little bit more about the tyres.

“The asphalt seems a little bit different compared to last year so we had to review a little bit of the data we had from the tyres, and generally a happy Friday but still more to come tomorrow.”

Aston Martin have also had a tough time in the opening weekends, citing the new floor regulations as the reason behind their slump in pace. Lance Stroll used both the Soft and Medium compound during his high-fuel run period, while Vettel concentrated on the Medium.

Alfa Romeo showed some impressive Friday long-run pace on Friday, as they did in Imola. Kimi Raikkonen leads the midfield pack in terms of average lap time, however it should be noted that only a handful of laps corresponds to his lap time data. Team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi was the slowest in the pack though he only took part in FP2 owing to Callum Ilott’s outing in FP1.

At the back of the field, there’s little surprise that Haas occupies the last two times on the board, as is set to be the case throughout the year. Both rookies focused on different tyre compounds, however it was Mick Schumacher than ran consistently faster than Nikita Mazepin.

Williams also used differing compounds on both their drivers, with George Russell, who is looking to move on from his controversial Imola shunt with Valtteri Bottas, settling for the Soft on Friday, while Nicholas Latifi circled the track on the Medium tyres.