Portuguese Grand Prix: Valttteri Bottas sets the pace in the first practice session

Listen to the second training session on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra and the BBC Sports website starting at 2:50 p.m. BST

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas led Red Bulls Max Verstappen to set the pace in the first practice session at the Portuguese Grand Prix.

Bottas was 0.025 seconds ahead of Verstappen and 0.319 seconds faster than his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

The seven-time champion Hamilton was fifth behind Sergio Perez of Red Bull and Charles Leclerc of Ferrari.

Hamilton struggled with his car and tried several times to improve but never managed to get a lap together.

Hamilton said at the beginning of the meeting that the Mercedes was “not drivable” because of cold tires and later appeared to suffer from an unstable rear end.

He drove the fastest first sector on the lap several times, but time continued to drop on the lap.

Verstappen also struggled, but managed to effectively adjust Bottas’ time despite strong vibrations when running on the faster “soft” tire.

Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly was sixth fastest ahead of an impressive time from Williams’ George Russell in seventh ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Alpines Esteban Ocon completed the top 10.

It was an uneventful session despite the fact that a large number of riders had slashed lap times from going far at turn four and they all seemed to be struggling to some degree for grip on the undulating Portimao circuit in the Algarve.

Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff said: “The feedback on both sides of the garage was similar, but not as bad on one side of the garage as the other.”