Portimão, located in Algarve, on the south coast of Portugal is the scene for this weeks round of FPRL racing. The first of 3 new tracks added to F1 2021 as free DLC, comes as the last of the three in the Race Calendar for FPRL..
The clockwise circuit consists of 15 corners, 9 to the right, and 6 to the left. One of the defining charact
eristics is the rollercoaster-like nature of the track (Thanks Lando for the metaphor)
Across the half year the track has been in the game, several corners have stood out as tricky parts. The first of which is turn 4, which is an uphill left-hander, which has tight track limits on the exit. Getting a good exit here is important, as it leads to the sec
ond DRS zone, into the sharp braking zone of turn 5. The trick to getting around here still facing the right direction is a wide entry, being careful not to spin the rears up at the apex. Going round further in a couple of corners, is turn 8, a right-hand hairpin which again goes uphill. The trick here is to get most of the steering done before the apex, and short shift into 4th gear which minimises the wheelspin, and should keep you on the road. The final tough corner for me on the track is turn 12. Although it looks like a simple left hander, the compression on the apex of the corner makes it very easy to lose the back end, and I would be lying if I said I hadn't picked up a few 10 second pens for spinning across the grass and skidding across the track between turn 13 and 14.
As for overtaking places on track, you're most likely to see moves at turns 1 and 5, though you will see a few brave dives into turns 10 and 11.
As for FPRL, will we see AliFerrari's dominance of tier 1 continue? Can Teint de Lait and i Biddle x close in on Henkkaazz in tier 2? Will Maggsy be able to fend off Locker and NigelPiggle?
Find out this week, starting at 8pm Wednesday evening when tier 3 battle it out at the Portuguese Grand Prix, followed Thursday by tier 1, and finally Tier 2 on Friday.