The Brazilian McLaren driver finished second this Sunday in Imola
This Sunday (19), the fourth round of the F2 World Championship concluded with the Feature Race. In a weekend that began with Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto celebrating pole position on Friday, he managed to finish both races well, with a sixth place in the Sprint Race and a second place this morning in the main race.
After celebrating the pole position, which Bortoleto dedicated to his idol Ayrton Senna, the team worked intensely at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, Italy. With very different strategies for the two upcoming races, the engineers at Invicta Racing worked hard to provide the best equipment for the Brazilian driver.
Following the rule of reversing the top ten qualifiers for the Sprint Race, Gabriel lined up his car in the 10th position for the Sprint Race, held on Saturday morning. Knowing he had a fast car, the driver made a good start and continued the race. Before the first corner, an accident involving three cars right in front of him tested the Brazilian’s reflexes, which he impressively managed to avoid and continued the race. The safety car was deployed, and three laps later, the race resumed. By this point, Gabriel was in sixth place. During the remaining 22 laps, the driver from São Paulo pressured Oliver Bearman, who was right ahead. On the final lap, Bortoleto attempted twice to overtake his competitor but was unsuccessful, finishing in sixth place. This result earned him three more points in the Championship.
THE FIRST PODIUM
For the second time this season, on Sunday, Gabriel Bortoleto had the honor of starting from pole position. In front of a packed circuit with Brazilian flags everywhere, the 19-year-old was excited for the races.
Right at the start, as the lights went out, the #10 car of the Brazilian driver, starting from the dirtier side of the track, couldn’t get the ideal traction and, by the first corner, Bortoleto was already in fourth place. Undeterred, the driver continued with an intelligent race aiming for recovery. In the first six laps, he maintained fourth place, always trying to stay within the DRS zone of the third-placed driver.
With seven laps completed, Gabriel pitted for his mandatory stop, switching from four soft compound tires to four new hard compound tires. In a perfect job by the Invicta Racing team, Bortoleto returned well to the track in a “virtual” second place. The Brazilian’s battle at that moment was against French driver Isaac Hadjar, who was 3.2 seconds ahead. Bortoleto then started to set really fast laps, and with great persistence, he was close to Hadjar two laps before the end. Gabriel tried everything to regain the lead but ended up crossing the finish line in a celebrated second place.
“I’m happy with our weekend here in Imola. Of course, I wanted to win, but we did an extremely positive job. After the pole position, I had a race yesterday where I recovered four positions, and today, I achieved my first podium in Formula 2. Altogether, I scored 23 points over the weekend and moved up from 11th to 5th in the Championship. After hardly running in Melbourne, returning with a result like this makes me very excited to keep working. We will push hard as we have Monaco next week. I thank my Invicta Racing team for their perfect work throughout the weekend, my family, and my sponsors for all their support,” concluded the 19-year-old driver.
The FIA Formula 2 Championship resumes its calendar next week with the 5th round of the season, the Monaco Grand Prix, in Monte Carlo.
Pictures: Dutch Photo Agency and James Gasperotti | Disclosure
Press Office of Gabriel Bortoleto
Responsible journalist: Flávio Quick