Portimão

The Autódromo Internacional do Algarve sits in the hills above Portimão, and drivers talk about it the way they talk about very few, a rollercoaster of blind crests and elevation changes they rank among the best anywhere they race. Cars crest a rise and disappear; the track drops away beneath them and they commit on faith. It runs above the Algarve coast, so the cliffs, the beaches and the grilled fish are a few minutes from the paddock, a race weekend that doubles, without much effort, as a coast weekend. The drama is on the hill; lunch is by the sea.

We fly here because some Grands Prix are a day and this one is a weekend, with the Atlantic a few minutes from the paddock as the reason. A circuit drivers rate among the best deserves to be done properly: the racing on the hill, lunch by the sea, and no day lost to the road home. Come for the rollercoaster; stay for the coast.