Both “Mercedes” drivers have shown the fastest lap times in the last practice races before pl. 16:00 upcoming Portuguese Grand Prix qualifiers.
Minor changes affected the track boundaries, allowing riders with right-hand wheels to ride on the curb in the first turn, but this hardly saved the situation and, as in yesterday, the choice of trajectory in this turn was the reason for deleting several lap times. A total of 125 laps were canceled on Friday.
Louis Hamilton underwent a thorough excursion through the gravel lane during the training, while Ferrari driver Charles Clecker slipped off the Portimao track, but did not ride his car.
Walter Botass beat Luis Hamilton for the hair, becoming the fastest rider in all three trainings. Max Verstapen finished in the top three, but a stunning lap time was shown by the fourth fastest driver, Pierre Gazli, whose car was replaced by a burnt-out Honda engine after Friday’s events. Gazli was at a power unit already in use.
Only 14th place this time went to Daniel Richtero, who spent most of the last half hour because his Renault car didn’t have a CRS system. Richtero returned to the track in the last minutes, but failed to complete the test lap because the session was stopped a minute before the end of the session because Sebastian Vettel broke the drain cover on the track.
