The first Portuguese Grand Prix on was held on the Boavista street course in Porto on June 17th 1951 then was moved to Monsanto Park in 1954 as a one-off. The first Formula One race was held in 14 August 1958 in Porto, followed in 1959 by a grand prix at Monsanto Park, Lisbon and a return to Porto in 1960, after which it was ended.
The seeds for the return of the Portuguese Grand Prix were planted with the inauguration of the Autódromo do Estoril in 1972. The Estoril Grand Prix was held as a European Formula Two Championship event during the 1970s. In 21 October 1984, Portugal returned to the F1 calendar, ending the season, where Alain Prost won the race but failed to win the Championship by half a point. In 1985, the Grand Prix was moved to April 21 and held under heavy rain, the ideal conditions for Ayrton Senna to win his first race. From 1986, the race was held in what would become its traditional date, in the penultimate week of September.
Estoril was then considered an unsafe and outdated track, and the last Portuguese Grand Prix was in Estoril on 22 September 1996, with Jacques Villeneuve as the winner. Estoril was planned to be the site of the 1997 European Grand Prix, but improvements to the circuit were not finished in time. With the expansion of Formula One outside Europe (and several European races under threat of cancellation), the chances for the return of the Portuguese Grand Prix are very slim.