F1 FANTASY: Win great prizes in our New Circuits Mini League, plus tips for the Portuguese GP

After a week off, Formula 1 is back this weekend with the Portuguese Grand Prix. And as ever, we've got plenty of tips for your F1 Fantasy team, plus some exciting news about a new mini league...

Join F1 Fantasy or change your team here!

New Circuits Mini League – sign up now!

Formula 1 is set to visit three unfamiliar tracks over the next three races, with Grands Prix at Portimao, Imola and Istanbul coming up. To celebrate, we've decided to create a New Circuits Mini League for this run of races – with a special prize up for grabs for the winner.

So if you signed up for F1 Fantasy but then never got round to building your team, this is perfect for you. Simply choose your drivers and team, then join the mini league to be in with a chance of winning a Red Bull team cap, signed by Max Verstappen himself.

The league lasts just the next three races and, by our stopwatch, it takes just a few minutes to set up your F1 Fantasy team. Join the league by clicking here or entering this code: 9307a08938.

FORM GUIDE: Who is best-placed to conquer the new-to-F1 Portimao circuit?

When should I play my Mega Driver bonus?

There are thousands of players left with unplayed Mega Driver powerups – the 3x multiplier that can be attached to any driver to triple their score on a particular race.

The best time to play this powerup would be when your chosen driver is on a streak of top-10 finishes in both the race and qualifying. To check who’s on a streak, manage your team and bring up the list of drivers, then and look at the orange and blue bars under their name.

WATCH: Daniel Ricciardo is your guide for a lap of the Portuguese GP track

You’ll see that Lewis Hamilton, barring any unfortunate retirements, is on course to reach both streaks (five orange and blue bars) in four races’ time – in Bahrain. That means you could haul in 45 extra points there by using your powerup...

Tips for the Portuguese Grand Prix

Two new Grands Prix – in Portugal and at Imola – mean that the next two weeks are a journey into the unknown for most of the teams and drivers. So it’s worth waiting until after free practice to get a gauge on where the drivers stand, however, you’re most likely to score points with Mercedes and Hamilton in your team.

Mercedes are also nearing a streak of top-10 qualifications, which means a potential five extra points. Every little helps!

PODCAST: A Hamilton-Verstappen super team at Mercedes? Toto Wolff has his say on the likelihood...

The biggest conundrum is choosing drivers sub-$9m to complete your line-up: Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi is on a rich run of form and he has outdone team mate Kimi Raikkonen in recent races. The Haas drivers have also shown a great improvement and Kevin Magnussen is finally on a positive net score for the season, while Romain Grosjean took a top-10 finish at the Nurburgring last time out.

Team of the Week from the Eifel Grand Prix

The Team of the Week from the Eifel GP included all three podium finishers from the Nurburgring, with an unusual choice of constructors – to net a stunning 374 points. This strategy is brilliant, and could be one to keep an eye on in coming races.

In this team, race winner Lewis Hamilton was made Mega Driver to take 129 points while Max Verstappen finished second and took 42 points.

READ MORE: Ferrari targeting top six in qualifying for remainder of season after Portimao upgrades

The inclusion of Daniel Ricciardo as Turbo Driver hauled in another 100 points, the Australian having nailed a P3 finish and 15 extra points for completing race and qualifying streaks.

Sixth-place finisher Pierre Gasly of AlphaTauri took 26 points and Racing Point's fourth-place man Sergio Perez took 33 to round out the Team of the Week.

But it was the inclusion of Racing Point as constructors (44 points) that freed up enough of the budget to include both Verstappen and Hamilton in the team. A very effective strategy if you have a Mega Driver powerup still to play.

Sign up to F1 Fantasy or change your team here to be in with a chance of winning prizes, or just for bragging rights over your friends, family and colleagues.