Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll escaped punishment after investigating an accident during practice at the Portuguese Grand Prix.

Stewards called both drivers to testify and ruled that neither was “completely or basically at fault.”

Mercedes’ Voltaire Botas was in eighth place with Lewis Hamilton in the Verstapen session.

Red Bull’s Verstapen swore outside on the radio that after the accident between the two drivers, Stroll of Racing Point asked what he thought he was doing.

Stirl passed Verstappen in the final corner of the East Cole. Verstapen tried to get back to the start of the next call, but Stroll turned on.

The Stuarts report states: “Stroll quickly got up on his lap and was allowed to go to Verstappen’s lap before the incident.

“Looking at his team and normal practice data, Verstapen assumed that Stroll would return to the next lap and the original went straight to the overtake.

“However, Stroll was instructed by his team to go to the second flying lap. Stroll assumed that Versatapen was also able to find the gap between them in line with normal practice and therefore could not find the overtaking Verstapen.

“The drivers agreed at the hearing that the incident was the result of a misunderstanding between them and that both could play a role in avoiding the incident with conflict.”

This incident led to one of the two red flags in the interrupted session which puts little information on the track that is new to the team and drivers F1.

The first stop was when a fire broke out in Pierre Gasley’s Alpha Tauri.

A mandatory Pyrelya tire session on development tires for 2021 limited the more effective running in the first half of the session and this meant the session was not significant for a truly competitive order.

Gasley’s problem prevented Hamilton’s soft tires from quickly falling into place, and Botas was able to finish his work before the session closed.

Hamilton was able to climb into another lap before the second red flag, but was 1.3 seconds away from speed.

Botas had previously topped the first session, 0.399 seconds ahead of Hamilton, and Verstappen third.

McLaren’s Lando Norris was third from Ferrari’s Charles Lakelark and their teammates Carlos Sanz and Sebastian Vettel.

The latest features of the aerodynamic upgrades are the continuation of the introduction of some of their floor advancements in Portugal to Ferrari shortly after the changes to the front of the last two race cars.

Hamilton, who broke Michael Schumacher’s all-time record in Sunday’s win, said he enjoyed the Autodromo Algarve but had a restless day.

“Incredibly solid circuit,” the world champion said. “Massively challenging. The inductions are incredible

“You can’t see where you’re going in many places – you go out at eight when you’re stuck. You look at the sky for a while (turn) at 11 and you don’t know where you are.

“The surface is very smooth and you can see that a lot of people are sliding and cutting, no easy day.

“The first practice was probably a better session for me although the car didn’t look great and then we made some changes and it was pretty awful in P2.

“I need to take a few steps back and see where we went wrong with the setup.”