The feature the TV cameras really miss about Portimão is its elevation change. There’s an 85metre difference between its highest and lowest points. Stand at the exit of Turn 7, a fast downhill right-hander, and look behind you and down – and you have a great plan view of Turn 3, a hairpin. The aroma of exotic fuel blends drifts up on the stiff breeze.
Charles Leclerc is the first to attack the hairpin on this Friday morning, and the Ferrari on medium tyres doesn’t have anything like the chemical bonding with this gripless surface to match Leclerc’s ambition, but he’s comfortably able to control the consequences. He scrubs the speed off sideways between turn-in and apex.