- Portuguese Grand Prix
F1 race
Name =
Circuit =Autódromo do Estoril
Circuit_
Laps = 70
Circuit_length_km = 4.360
Circuit_length_mi =
Race_length_km = 305.200
Race_length_mi =
Most_wins_driver = flagicon|UKNigel Mansell (3)
flagicon|FranceAlain Prost (3)
Most_wins_constructor = flagicon|UK Williams (6)
Current_year = 1996
Winner = flagicon|CanadaJacques Villeneuve
Winning_team = flagicon|UK Williams-Renault
Winning_time = 1:40:22.915
Pole_driver = flagicon|UKDamon Hill
Pole_team = flagicon|UK Williams-Renault
Pole_time = 1:20.330
Fastest_lap_driver = flagicon|CanadaJacques Villeneuve
Fastest_lap_team = flagicon|UK Williams-Renault
Fastest_lThe Portuguese Grand Prix ("Grande Premio de Portugal") was a
motorsports event held for several years, mostly in the 1950s and then in the 1980s and 90s. It was aFormula One race between F1|1958 and F1|1960 and between F1|1984 and F1|1996.The first event was held on the Boavista street course in
Porto on17 June 1951 as a sports car race. The Grand Prix was moved to Monsanto Park,Lisbon , in 1954 as a one-off. The firstFormula One race was held in14 August 1958 in Boavista, followed in 1959 by a Grand Prix at Monsanto, return to Boavista in 1960, after which it was ended.The name was resurrected for a sports car in the
Cascais street circuit in 1964. The following two years, it was run forFormula Three cars.The seeds for the return of the Portuguese Grand Prix were planted with the inauguration of the
Autódromo do Estoril in 1972. The Estoril Grand Prix was held as a European Formula Two Championship event during the 1970s. In21 October 1984 , Portugal returned to the F1 calendar, ending the season, where Alain Prost won the race but failed to win the Championship by half a point. In 1985, the Grand Prix was moved toApril 21 and held under heavy rain, the ideal conditions forAyrton Senna to win his first race. From 1986, the race was held in what would become its traditional date, in the penultimate week of September.After the deaths of Senna and
Roland Ratzenberger in Imola in 1994, the Estoril track was changed, with a new chicane built in place of the tank curve, as a security measure. Estoril was then considered an unsafe and outdated track, and the last Portuguese Grand Prix was in Estoril on22 September 1996 , withJacques Villeneuve as the winner. Estoril was planned to be the site of the1997 European Grand Prix , but improvements to the circuit were not finished in time. Rumours exist that the race might return to the brand newAutódromo Internacional do Algarve in2010 or2011 .Mané Nogueira Pinto is the most recent Portuguese driver to win this Grand Prix.
Winners of the Portuguese Grand Prix
"A pink background indicates an event that was not part of the Formula One World Championship."
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