Conclusions | Red Bull's lead over Mercedes is small, Perez's racing pace is good

The Red Bull is not always better than the Mercedes

Mercedes seemed to have a faster car in Portugal than Red Bull Racing had. Max Verstappen had the greatest difficulty in overtaking the Mercedes. The times he did were during the restart when Lewis Hamilton wasn't paying attention and later on on warmer tyres after Valtteri Bottas' pit stop. It looks like the battle between these two teams will continue for 23 races. On one circuit Red Bull has the advantage, but on the other the advantage is for Mercedes.

Perez on race pace as fast as Verstappen and Mercedes

At the start of the Grand Prix Sergio Perez lost several positions. Which is a shame, because after he had regained them, Verstappen, Hamilton and Bottas were already too far away for Perez to join. When the Mexican finally caught up with Lando Norris after a couple of laps, his pace was as good as the top three in the race. If he can get the starts right, we could be in for some very exciting races this year with the top four fighting for wins.

Race directors not in control of rules

In 2021 teams, drivers and fans of Formula 1 will be bombarded with them: track limits. In every corner of the track it is different. One time it is a mistake to cross the white line with four wheels, another time it is the kerbstones. And then there are corners where track limits don't count at all. What's even weirder is that the track limits of Friday or Saturday can still change. Time for the race directors to apply the same track limits everywhere on the track. The white lines on the outside of the asphalt are there for a reason, do you cross them with four wheels? Then your time should not count.

Norris currently leads McLaren

Lando Norris has flown off the starting blocks in 2021. A fourth, third and fifth place gives him a nice third place in the driver classification. The young Briton is currently the leader within the McLaren team, because Daniel Ricciardo is not quite up to speed with his new car. The Australian was able to make up for the poor qualifying with some overtaking in Portugal. But when your younger team mate achieves such results, the experienced Ricciardo should be able to do the same.

Time for rejuvenation at Alfa Romeo

No one will write him off immediately after a careless mistake by Kimi Raikkonen, but the fact remains that the Finn celebrates his 42nd birthday in October. Currently teammate Antonio Giovinazzi seems to be doing at least as well as Raikkonen, which raises the question if the 2007 world champion is not getting too old. Moreover there are young drivers (with links to Ferrari) driving around in Formula 2 and Alfa Romeo has Callum Ilott as a reserve driver.