Portimão, Hills and Hollows in the Algarve

Finished near Portimão in 2008 and called on in the pandemic year of 2020, the Algarve circuit brought the Portuguese Grand Prix back after 24 years.

Few new circuits have waited so patiently for their Grand Prix. The Algarve International Circuit, which many simply call the Portimão Circuit, was completed near Portimão in Portugal's Algarve region in October 2008, designed by the Ricardo Pina architecture practice at a cost of about €195 million, and that same month it won approval from both the motorcycle and the car racing authorities. A karting track, an off road course, a hotel, a sports complex and apartments surround it.

The 4.653 km lap almost never sits still, rising and falling so constantly that it has drawn comparisons with the old Nürburgring and Spa Francorchamps. Early visitors spoke of steep drops and right handers after the main straight, of a width that invites overtaking and of corners with real personality. One driver compared a lap to a fairground ride, with a touch of old school danger.

Formula 1 teams were testing there within weeks of its opening, yet a race took another twelve years. When the pandemic forced a rebuilt 2020 calendar, Portimão was brought in as an exception to host the Portuguese Grand Prix in October, the first since 1996. Lewis Hamilton won from pole for the 92nd win of his career, one more than Michael Schumacher's total. The race returned in May 2021, and Hamilton won again, this time from second on the grid, with Max Verstappen behind him.

Those two races, in 2020 and 2021, are still the circuit's only championship rounds. MotoGP has raced there since 2020, and in December 2025 came the news that the Portuguese Grand Prix will return to Portimão in 2027 and 2028, so the patience looks set to be rewarded once more.

Every Grand Prix here

• 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix
• 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix