Valtteri Bottas edged out Max Verstappen to finish fastest in opening practice for the Portuguese Grand Prix. Bottas lapped the Portimao circuit just 0.025 seconds quicker than Red Bull’s Verstappen as Lewis Hamilton finished fifth. At the last race in Imola, the British driver finished behind Verstappen after slipping off the road in damp conditions. Hamilton later returned to the circuit but he was unable to put together a clean lap, finishing adrift of Bottas, Verstappen, Sergio Perez in the other Red Bull, and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Verstappen might have finished within a quarter of a tenth of Bottas but the the Dutchman also struggled with his tyres. Verstappen later complained that his car was ‘impossible to drive’.

Follow MotorMouth on social media:

• 
• 
• 
•