Brazilian driver was third in the stage of Formula Regional European Championship

This weekend, between the 8th and 10th of July, the traditional circuit of Hungaroring, in Budapest, Hungary, received the drivers and teams of Formula Regional European by Alpine for the disputes of the 6th round of the season. Competing for the French team R-Ace GP, the Brazilian driver Gabriel Bortoleto achieved, in a great performance, finish the Sunday race in the podium, with a very celebrated 3rd place.

Participating on his second season in the series, the 17-year-old Brazilian, has been living a year of lots of growth and, mainly, regularity. Since the beginning of the year, when he disputed the two first stages of Formula Regional Asian, when he even won in his debut in the Abu Dhabi track, he has been achieving consistent results, having scored in 11 of the 12 races so far. From a grid containing no less than 39 opponents, Bortoleto appears in the 7th place in the Championship, with a total of 92 points.

The schedule in Budapest started on Thursday with the extra practices. Gabriel, always amongst the fastest on track, tried to use maximum time on track to adapt to the layout and, besides, prepare the equipment for the races to come, as well as, the rest of the season.

On Saturday, with a lap time of 1m39s019 he’s got the 6th place for the first race start. On the race, however, after dropping to 9th place on the start, the Brazilian kept in the first pack, but couldn’t get much action against his opponents. Even though, he managed to defend well and got the flag in that same place. “We had a problem in the valves command of our car, which kept me from pursuing better places on the race. Unfortunately, we were able to discover that only in the post race review. Still, I was able to finish the race once again in the scoring zone, adding two more points for the Championship, explained him.

Podium on Sunday

Following the weekend schedule, on Sunday morning a new Qualifying was held and, later the race that finished the stage’s programming. In Qualifying, Gabriel managed to evolve from Saturday and, with a 1m38s242 lap time, he’s got the third best time for the race start.

The race took place at the end of Sunday afternoon. Gabriel, with a faster car, jumped to 2nd in a beautiful overtake in the first corners. However, from that point forward, got caught up in a tough fight for the lead, that went on the whole race. 3 laps to the end, after the Safety Car entrance, he ended up losing his 2nd place, but, right behind his opponent stayed in 3rd place until the flag was dropped.

“Finishing on the podium once again was very gratifying. The Championship level is very high and keeping myself amongst the first, always fighting for the podium is a very hard job. Despite having lost the 2nd place only a few laps before the end, we are very satisfied with the results we got and, mainly, we added 15 important points for the Championship”, concluded the driver.
The Formula Regional European by Alpine comes back on the 30th and 31st of July, in Spa-Francorchamps, when will happen the 7th stage of the championship.