“Massively challenging”- Lewis Hamilton impressed by magnificent Algarve track

“Massively challenging”- Lewis Hamilton impressed by the magnificent Algarve track which is organizing the Portuguese Grand Prix.

Formula 1 returned to Algarve after 24 years, giving a sight of elegance and thrill. On the paddock, there is not a single driver who has raced on this track before, including the most experienced driver right now- Kimi Raikkonen.

That’s why the uncertainty of the track has added up to the magnificence of this track, and Lewis Hamilton is in awe with this track.

The Briton driver after the first day of the Grand Prix weekend expressed his admiration towards the track and also called it challenging.

Those elevation changes 😙👌#PortugueseGP 🇵🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/YAcobf4Iqx

— Formula 1 (@F1) October 23, 2020

“It’s a difficult circuit,” said Hamilton after Friday’s running. “Massively challenging. The undulations are incredible. There’s a lot of places you can’t see where you’re going.

“The exit of turn eight you’re looking at the sky for a period of time, and you have no idea what’s beyond the hill. Also into 11, you’re coming in, and you don’t know where you are, all of a sudden it arrives at you out of nowhere.”

“So it’s very challenging. The surface is very smooth. You see a lot of people making mistakes and sliding and spinning, so it’s not been an easy day.”

Hamilton said the first practice “was probably the better session for me even though the car didn’t feel that great. Then we made some changes after this morning and it felt pretty terrible in second practice.

“So I need to take a few steps back, figure out where I went wrong with the session and where I can improve for tomorrow.”

The second session added difficulty

The second practice session was disrupted by two red flags which caused lengthy interruptions. “They’re quite slow on the recoveries today so we ended up sitting in the garage for much, much longer,” said Hamilton.

“We didn’t really great run plan in the second session. Today’s been difficult.” The compact and twisty layout also made it tricky to find space to run a lap in clear air.

“It’s not easy,” said Hamilton. “Also because it’s challenging to get the tyres in the window for the first lap here, even with the soft. They are hard tyres, this is the hardest range of tyres, on a circuit like this it should be expected I would say.

“But I think Q1 particularly there’ll be a lot of cars out there and it’ll be a dogfight to get the position, get a clear lap. But that’s what we do. Everyone’s in the same boat.”

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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