Friday April 30th 2021
Dissatisfaction after F1 practice
Vettel just laughs at his mishap
While Mick Schumacher is making progress, Sebastian Vettel continues to be more frustrated than happy. The Aston Martin driver disappointed in training for the Portuguese Grand Prix. While things are tight at the front, Mick Schumacher still has the most important duel under control at the end of the field.
Sebastian Vettel was also amused by his short odyssey in the pit lane. Instead of heading for the waiting crew at Aston Martin, the 33-year-old turned off to the McLaren garage during Formula 1 practice from Portimão. “I’m sorry, that had to happen at some point. I was wondering why no one was there,” radioed the Hessian with a cheerful undertone to his new team. In the previous year, the McLaren box was still being used by Vettel’s old employer, Ferrari, when he was probably lost for a moment.
Otherwise, the four-time world champion has apparently still not really arrived at Aston Martin and in his green company car. After two 15th place in the first two races of the season and many breakdowns, Vettel was also far from the top ranks in the first practice sessions at the Portuguese Grand Prix. At the beginning he finished 16th, the second unit he finished 15th.
“It’s not quite as good as I want,” said Vettel on the Sky microphone. “It’s still a bit difficult to bring everything together at the moment. We tried a lot, but haven’t come up with the best result yet,” said the Heppenheimer. Again he was significantly slower than his teammate Lance Stroll, his first yardstick. “He drives other specifications,” said Vettel.
Schumacher dominates the team duel
Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas set the fastest time of the day at noon. In the second practice session, his team-mate Lewis Hamilton was the fastest. Second was Max Verstappen in the Red Bull, who, as in the two opening races, is likely to be the strongest opponent of the Mercedes drivers.
Before the third race of the season on Sunday (4 p.m. / Sky and in the live ticker at ntv.de), defending champion Hamilton leads the overall standings with just one point ahead of Verstappen. Because of the problems at Mercedes in the first two world championship races, the team brought a number of new components for the car to the Algarve. Nevertheless, Hamilton initially complained about a “fairly inaccessible” Silver Arrow on the difficult route. Verstappen also complained several times on the pit radio about the tires and the driving behavior of his Red Bull.
The wind and the poor grip on the slippery asphalt made all the drivers quite a problem. The roller coaster route with large differences in altitude was already a real challenge for the pilots when it premiered last October. Newcomer Mick Schumacher, who drove a Formula 1 car in the Algarve for the first time, did well in Friday practice. As 18th he was clearly faster than Haas stable rival Nikita Mazepin, who was ranked as the last one.
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