Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Image source, Getty Images

Carlos Sainz has out-qualified Charles Leclerc for the first time since joining Ferrari. It came as a surprise given Leclerc had gone faster on medium tyres in second qualifying than Sainz did on softs. Leclerc is always hard on himself when he feels he has underperformed, and that was no different on Saturday. Sainz says he is making progress with understanding what the the car needs and was particularly proud of mastering the windy conditions without making major mistakes.

“If you want to extract the absolute maximum from the car you have to adapt your driving,” he said, “with headwind, tailwind, understeer, oversteer and drive differently – you have to know how to drive each corner. This weekend I’ve put in a lot of effort, focusing on each corner, how to approach it, how to drive it. There’s a lot of thinking going on inside the car.”

Leclerc said he had simply tried too hard. “I was trying to over-push,” he said, “which works in most conditions but in these conditions if you’re a little bit under the limit and manage to do a clean lap it pays off and I struggled to do that. It was incredibly difficult in these conditions.

“It’s no excuse. I didn’t do a good enough job. I struggled to be consistent. Carlos has been very competitive all weekend and he has just been driving better than me.”

Leclerc starts eighth and Sainz fifth, but the Monegasque’s underlying pace meant he is the only driver in the top 10 other than the Mercedes and Red Bulls to start on the medium tyre, which could become an advantage as the race unfolds.

This is the track at Portimao. We have got 66 laps of the circuit, which is 4.653km long.

It's the second race here after Lewis Hamilton started and ended in front in October as he clinched the 92nd win of his career - overtaking Michael Schumacher's record of 91 victories.

Image source, F1

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Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Image source, Getty Images

Two races down, a win apiece for Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, and now Valtteri Bottas starts the third from pole, as Mercedes lock out the front row in Portugal and Red Bull the second.

With all four drivers from the top two teams up at the front, this promises to be a close, intriguing tactical battle. Formula 1’s in-house data suggests that Red Bull had the quicker race car on Friday in practice, but so far this season the team machines have been extremely evenly matched. This is anyone’s race.

• 1. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes)
• 2. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
• 3. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
• 4. Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
• 5. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
• 6. Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
• 7. Lando Norris (McLaren)
• 8. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
• 9. Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri)
• 10. Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin)
• 11. George Russell (Williams)
• 12. Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo)
• 13. Fernando Alonso (Alpine)
• 14. Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri)
• 15. Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo)

• 16. Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren)
• 17. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
• 18. Nicholas Latifi (Williams)
• 19. Mick Schumacher (Haas)
• 20. Nikita Mazepin (Haas)

Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas, who starts on pole position: "It's a good feeling to be on pole.

"Feels like it's been a while. It's been a weak point for me in the first two races. The team have been working hard all weekend and we have a good position for tomorrow.

"It felt better with the mediums. Like last year, we put the mediums on at the end of qualifying and we tried it again but I think maybe the wind picked up on the last run and I couldn't quite get the temperature in them, so I'm glad we still had a good result.

"Starting with the medium tyre is good, and it opens up opportunities that we can go as long as we want in the first stint.

"We need to focus on the race start and then go from there."

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Image source, Reuters

Valtteri Bottas beat Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton to pole position in a bizarre qualifying session at the Portuguese Grand Prix.

Bottas beat Hamilton by 0.007 seconds, but Red Bull's Max Verstappen had a faster lap ruled out for exceeding track limits.

And Hamilton set a much faster lap in the second part of qualifying, 0.4secs quicker than the eventual pole, but could not match it when it mattered. Verstappen salvaged third with a final attempt, just under 0.2secs off Bottas.

Verstappen's team-mate Sergio Perez took fourth place, ahead of the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz and the improved Alpine of Esteban Ocon, for the team's best qualifying performance of the year so far.

Ocon's team-mate Fernando Alonso, quick on the first laps of the first session of qualifying, faded after a spin at the end of that session, and could manage only 13th on the grid.

And Daniel Ricciardo was even worse off in the McLaren, knocked out in first qualifying and 16th, with team-mate Lando Norris seventh ahead of the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

Hello and welcome along to BBC Sport's coverage of the Portuguese Grand Prix from Portimao.

I'm Michael Emons and it is my pleasure to be talking you through the action today. It's lights out at 15:00 GMT and, as always, we have got live radio coverage with us live on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra.

Lewis Hamilton won race one of 2021...

Image source, Getty Images

...Max Verstappen triumphed in race two...

Image source, Getty Images

...but it might not just be the two-horse title race we all expect as Valtteri Bottas took pole yesterday and starts at the front of the Portuguese Grand Prix, with Hamilton second and Verstappen third.

Image source, Getty Images

We've had two great races to start the season, and it's all set up nicely for another thriller.