In 2020 we suddenly saw the Portuguese Grand Prix return on the Formula 1 calendar due to the outbreak of the corona virus around the world. Where everyone thought that it would remain a one-off appearance of the circuit of Portimao nothing seems to be further from the truth, because also in 2021 the Formula 1 circus lands in the Algarve.

There's a one hour time difference between Portugal and the Netherlands, which means that all sessions this weekend will be an hour later.

When is practice and qualifying at Portimao?

As with the first two Grands Prix of the season in Bahrain and Imola, all free practice sessions will be one hour long. Last season the first two free practice sessions were an hour and a half, but Liberty Media has taken away a total of one hour of practice time from the teams in 2021. We start on Friday with VT1 and VT2 at 12:30 and 16:00 respectively.

A day later, the final practice session is scheduled for the race teams. The third free practice will mainly be used to do qualification runs in order to find the right setup for the qualification that will take place later on the day. Between 16:00 and 17:00 in the afternoon, it will become clear who will start from pole position on Sunday.

What time is the GP of Portugal?

The points are only distributed in the race and for that you have to switch on at 16:00 sharp. The lights will go out on the circuit of Portimao. After about 100 minutes we will know whether Lewis Hamilton has maintained his leading position in the world championship or that Max Verstappen is the first Dutchman ever who can lead the World Championship in Formula 1.