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Verstappen slams Portuguese GP: Don't come back

The Red Bull driver has made his stance clear on how he feels about racing at Portimao following his second-place finish at the Portuguese GP.

Max Verstappen has revealed he did not enjoy driving at the Portuguese GP due to the lack of grip around the 4.65km circuit. The Dutch driver has been particularly vocal about the tarmac at Portimao which has caused a headache for most of the teams to try and get the tyres into the optimal working window on the unusual track surface. Verstappen said he could not wait to head to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya next weekend where he believes he will be able to have more fun in the car. "The whole weekend I didn't enjoy because of the grip levels around here," Verstappen told Sky Sports. "I hope we don't come back. "Barcelona is good. It's a nice track for an F1 car and I think we'll see more of how the progression of the teams have been from the start of the season to today." Verstappen had to settle for second after Lewis Hamilton overtook him early in the race and had to rely on Red Bull's strategy, to undercut Valtteri Bottas and make the most of his warm tyres to overtake the Mercedes driver as Bottas struggled coming out of the pits. "I was just clearly lacking a little bit of grip, a little bit of top speeds, just not being able to put the pressure on Mercedes," said Verstappen. "Lewis got past Valtteri, but still I couldn't pass and always the last two corners I lost out way too much. But then I think the team called me in at a good time and I had a good strong out lap because it was super slippery out there. "But even on the hard tyre, sometimes I could match Hamilton, sometimes not and then he was pulling away again. "There was never really one point where I thought, 'okay, we have the pace to fight him' so I just tried to stay in second."

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