The start of Free Practice 2 which was preceded by Bottas being the fastest one during the first session of the weekend had to be delayed 10 minutes due to a loose drain cover.

Lewis Hamilton topped the session with a time of 1:19.837 while Valtteri Bottas kept the 3^rd place, 0.344 tenths behind.

Good day of practice in the Algarve 👊 Back tomorrow for more! #PortugueseGP pic.twitter.com/YSusrTRYy3

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) April 30, 2021

Max Verstappen reported break problems within 15 minutes on the session but was able to solve them as he managed to finish 2^nd overall with teammate Sergio Pérez finishing 10^th in matters of teams racing for fastest laps.

All drivers started the session with the medium compound, keeping a stable distance of less than four-tenths between the top 5, until Valtteri Bottas changed to the softer tyres, 20 minutes into the session.

Carlos Sainz performed great and constantly topped Charles Leclerc, as both Ferraris were in the fight to be the third-best team on the stats with Alpine, with Alonso and Ocon being 5th and 6th, splitting both prancing horses the Spaniard being 4th.

Mick Schumacher reported engine problems with 15 minutes left in the session. The German finished 18th 1.700 seconds far from first place as his teammate Nikita Mazepin bottomed the table 2.801 seconds far from the top. Nicholas Latifi split both Haas with George Russell was 13th.

With 20 minutes left on the clock all the cars prepared for practice on race pace, no driver improved their time from now on, Max Verstappen being the fastest in this regard with lapping times around 1:22:09 in the medium tyres. Carlos Sainz still with a good performance as the Ferrari driver continued lapping 1:23:01 with Charles Leclerc finally close. A good race pace was shown from the McLaren drivers too.