Start, Autodromo do Algarve, 2021

Rate the race: 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix

2021 Portuguese Grand Prix

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What did you think of today’s race? Share your verdict on the Portuguese Grand Prix.

RaceFans has held polls on every F1 race since 2008 to find out which fans thought of each round of the season.

Join in the latest poll and give your verdict on the race: 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest. Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

What were the best and worst moments of the race? What was the main thing you’ll remember about it? Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix out of 10

  • 10 (1%)
  • 9 (3%)
  • 8 (13%)
  • 7 (33%)
  • 6 (27%)
  • 5 (10%)
  • 4 (4%)
  • 3 (4%)
  • 2 (4%)
  • 1 (1%)

Total Voters: 240

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1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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42 comments on “Rate the race: 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix”

  1. Another decent race.

    1. The Skeptic (@)
      2nd May 2021, 17:10

      Quite enjoyable. Hamilton had to execute three overtakes for the lead. The overtakes on Verstappen and Bottas were brilliant. Perez was a formality.

      Norris is a great racer. Alonso was splendid at the end. Ricciardo decent. Vettel and Sainz were sabotaged by bad strategy.

    2. definitely th best race this season still political, more track limits and more DRS histrionics. Shortening the drs did exactly what I predicted, made drs much more useful for merc cars than everyone else.

  2. Wanted it to stop earlier than it did. First half was good though. 6.

    1. RandomMallard (@)
      2nd May 2021, 16:44

      I went for 7, but agree with you. First half was pretty decent, second half a little dull.

  3. Not a classic but a solid GP. Lewis made the difference today yet again. He sure takes the chances he gets. These cars look incredible around this track!

  4. Traditional F1 race.
    Nothing wrong with the format as everyone can see.

  5. Quite boring, almost no overtakes other than the DRS assisted ones on the start/finish straight and no incidents of note either. Good recovery drives from Alonso/Riccardo I guess.

    1. The best overtakes were Verstappen on Hamilton into 1 and Norris on Perez into 5 on the first lap after the SC restart. Both without DRS.

  6. Great opening first 20 laps or so but the win was never in doubt once Hamilton took the lead. After that it was intriguing but not exactly dramatic. Gave it a 7 overall.

  7. 8. Intesive battle in the podium but the second half of the race was kinda slow. Last year have more battle but that was for 7th.

  8. Painfully average, voted 6, felt there was a battle up front but never really came to fruition once Lewis got the lead.

    Hopefully Spain throws a better race but never really does nowadays.

  9. 5 – As average as F1 can be.
    DRS was too strong again.

    Looking forward to seeing Bottas rewarded with the fastest lap, as Verstappen was clearly out at 14

  10. 5/10. +1 for fast lap tournament in the end. So 6/10 overall. We still yet to see how Bottas did turn 14.

  11. LB (@burden93)
    2nd May 2021, 16:48

    7 for me, enjoyable watch but not a classic. A few passes for the lead which was good. As much as DRS was very strong, not sure there would have been any overtakes without it

  12. Solid GP, but nothing special. It’s a shame such a wonderful racetrack has such huge run offs, would be so much better with the grass or gravel a bit closer.

  13. Compared to Moto3 and MotoGP races earlier today quite boring race.

    1. ian dearing
      2nd May 2021, 18:14

      To be fair after the first half of the Moto2 and MotoGP you could pretty much work out the order they were going to finish in. And then a few laps later…….!!!

  14. Gave it a 7. Bog standard race, got a bit processional after a while.

    Normal service resumed then?

  15. End of the race highlights a part of why I hate the point for fastest lap.

    I just don’t see how been slow enough to have a gap allowing you to pit for fresh tyres with 2-3 laps left is deserving of an extra point. I don’t think it add’s any extra excitement or anything to the race as it’s not as if we get to see the lap because been a race the racing is more important & the focus rather than am utterly meaningless single lap.

    1. @stefmeister Well said. If ever there was a token gesture to ‘spice up the show’. Makes me fear that the likes of fan-boost a possibility. 160 extra horsepower, to be unleased once per lap for 10 secs, for the final 10 laps or so (except for the driver in the lead).

    2. I fully agree. The whole fastest point thing is really annoying to me. If you want to award an extra point for doing the fastest lap, do it in qualifying or don’t just limit it to the top ten.

  16. I gave it a 6. For one though, I think DRS was pretty well balanced. Most of the “easy” overtakes were on cars with massively older tyres.

  17. Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
    2nd May 2021, 16:57

    7/10
    Solid wheel to wheel racing between the top guns of the sport,plus we had a strategic factor in their battle.

    Unfortunately Perez wasn’t a part of the battle today but he has the pace + racecraft to be in the upcoming races.

    I really appreciated how clean the racing was today, all guys behaved when battling.

  18. Last year’s wet race was better but this one was decent, Lewis earning the lead after two very good moves makes me give it a 7.

  19. Not as good as the first two, but a decent race all the same on this brilliant track. A 6 from me.

  20. petebaldwin (@)
    2nd May 2021, 17:07

    DRS just killed this one for me. I gave up around half way.

    1. F1oSaurus (@)
      2nd May 2021, 17:10

      @petebaldwin You mistake the effect of worn tyres for DRS. Common mistake though.

      1. Indeed too many people whine about DRS because they blame it for passes on cars driving round with destroyed tyres. Verstappen was in DRS range of Bottas for 10+ laps and couldn’t pass so it was clearly not over powered.

  21. Adam (@rocketpanda)
    2nd May 2021, 17:23

    Quite dull.

  22. 6/10. It was ok. The victory was never at risk, despite the Bulls being near.

  23. ian dearing
    2nd May 2021, 18:17

    6/10, but bumped up to 7/10 for the way Ham took Max right to the edge of the track at turn 3. Nico said Ham would pay Max back for what he did in the last race at turn 2.

  24. It’s a typical 7 for me. Some battles for the lead, but the end just wasn’t very exciting. On to the next. Spain? Hmpf.. On to the second to next!

  25. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
    2nd May 2021, 20:16

    6/10. Haven’t rated a race since 2018.

  26. Good and close race and only 1 safety car, which was luckily early and not a decider.

    Cars pretty much flat out the entire race. Fights up and down the field.

    An 8 from me.

  27. DRS ruined the overtakes. The track was amazing to watch.

    Mick Schumacher and Verstappen did the only real overtaking, everything else was DRS stuff.

  28. 6/10 for me. It seems to be an interesting circuit and it’s obviously challenging to drive with these cars.

    The first part of the race was quite interesting but once Hamilton and Verstappen had passed Bottas it became less exciting. Lots of simple DRS passes on one car by another with newer tyres.

  29. Jockey Ewing
    2nd May 2021, 22:48

    Considering the recent scores, I thought that it was around a 7.0 after the race. As Imola was something like a 8.0 for me, it is at about right.

    Nice and frequent position changes around the podium at the first half, with some strategic battle, what I also like to have, but then it became less eventful. Nice pass by Hamilton on Verstappen, and a nice retake attempt by Max. Also remarkable by Norris, and Mick Schumacher. I can not consider the 0% score for Max right at the DOTW voting, he had a quite good race, but he was a bit off throughout the weekend. So Hamilton or Norris takes it more deservedly.

    Sadly the safety car was involved again, just like at almost all races since the start of the previous season, seeing how well plan A works out for most, or what can some drivers do after a good start happened so rarely since then. Meanwhile, as a safety measure, I don’t debate the deployments of it, but still, it happened so often at early stages of the races, or before or around the time when almost everyone pitted, and that often created a lot of randomness, which I’m not happy to see all the time.

    The DRS was still a bit too powerful, imo a mistake around T13 or T14 can bring be an occasional overtaking attempt on the main straight in close racing by itself. Hamilton used his opportunity against Max very nicely.
    Meanwhile the shorter DRS zone after turn 4 was much better, at least they were often closer at the amazing parts of sector 2.

    The tyre allocation seemed to be a bit scarce here, as many of the entrants had to do a heating lap after their outlap on on mediums or hards at the qualification sessions, or the softest compound was barely enough to complete a fast lap. Therefore almost everyone had little choice of tyre options for the race, almost everyone had only used softs, or used mediums, apart from the mandatorily spared one set of mediums and one set of hards. And at weaker constructors it is commonplace to have no options if they want to get into the next part of qualifying, thy are regularly sacrifying additional tyres. As a cost saving measure, the price of the tyres is negligible to the total sum of the cost cap, so more or pricier tyres would be no problem at all.

    Despite of it, Perez showed how durable these tyres are (apart from the blowouts, and sidewall and tread separation type punctures, which are obviously bad). He had 5 laps in his mediums before the race: 1 outlap, 1 heating lap, ‘ fast lap, and 1 lap to return to the pits at Q2, and the formation lap. Despite of it he did almost a complete race distance on those mediums. The problem is the narrow operation window, which I would happily trade for an wider operational window + less durability grip-wise.

    Seeing Portimao for the second time, I don’t like that they created a quite slippery track surface. I like this venue, it is so spectacular, but this kind of resurfacing was not the right direction, no matter who made it (probably they were forced to do so, to get the opportunity to have a GP?). If the track surface would provide more grip, so there would be a “minimum grip coefficient” requirement to hold a GP then that would be a better approach, because then they can drop some aero-generated downforce, thus they could get rid some aero dependency. Hamilton also said, that after testing the new tyres, he has a feeling, that providing more grip on the tyres would be the right direction.

    There were some nice shots from the helicopter at sector 2, after the crest, dropping down to the valley, that was so cool, but still, I felt that even the helicopter shots are too much zoomed in, and therefore it is harder to percieve the momentum, and the pictures are less enjoyable. I don’t know since when zooming so much in is a general practice, but often I had a feeling, that I’m not enjoying it, what can be wrong? But what to enjoy, If I don’t see the dynamics, and momentum, because they show grand totals at a large percentege of the broadcast.

  30. 1 (1%)
    2 (4%)
    3 (4%)
    4 (4%)
    5 (10%)
    6 (27%)
    7 (31%)
    8 (14%)
    9 (3%)
    10 (1%)
    Total Voters: 197

    Current situation, and I went with 7, it’s probably a 7,5, but mercedes fastest is not my cup of tea after 7 years of winning titles, so I will always round down rather than up whenever things go well for mercedes, but the positives were quite some battles at the front, with verstappen overtaking hamilton, then the opposite, then verstappen chasing bottas, not managing to overtake him, then after pitting coming out with already warmed up tyres and immediately passing him, reminded me of schumacher on fisichella in china 2006!

    Ah, hamilton’s overtake on bottas was particularly good, and like always there was quite some action in the midfield.

    1. Ah, forgot, the end where everyone tried to pit for fastest lap was very fun, liked it!

  31. Absolutely loved the race, it had a retro feeling, an awesome undulating circuit, unpredictable grip on the tires, and the first three positions decided by battles on track. It may not have had a grandstand finish, but it was very much pleasing the old fan that I am.

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