Driver delivers impressive recovery race after first-lap spin

The second round of the F1 World Championship concluded this Sunday (23). At the Shanghai International Circuit in China, Brazilian driver Gabriel Bortoleto, who is making his debut season in the category, started from 19th place and, after a strong recovery race, finished in 14th position.

As scheduled in the F1 calendar, the Chinese GP features a unique format as the first of six events to include a Sprint Race. On Friday, drivers had only one practice session to adapt to the circuit before heading straight into the Sprint Race qualifying session. Bortoleto completed 24 laps in practice and entered qualifying with confidence. In this session, as in Australia, he managed to take Sauber’s #5 car into Q2, securing a spot on the seventh row of the starting grid with a lap time of 1m32s564, placing him 14th.

Saturday’s schedule began with the Sprint Race. Gabriel had a strong start, maintaining his position; however, as the laps progressed, he struggled significantly with medium tire degradation. As a result, in the final laps, he lost performance and was overtaken by several competitors, finishing the race in 18th place. On the last lap, he was also hit by Jack Doohan, which caused him to spin and damaged part of his Sauber.

A few hours later, the cars returned to the track for the main race qualifying. Gabriel was optimistic, having reached Q2 in Australia and in the Sprint Race qualifying. This time, however, the young São Paulo native got caught in traffic during his preparation lap. As a result, he was unable to get the optimal tire warm-up and ended up qualifying only 19th for the main race.

“In today’s race, despite a good starting position, unfortunately, we struggled with tire degradation and couldn’t capitalize on the strong work we did on Friday. I could not keep up with the pace, and the contact with Doohan at the end also caused some damage to the car. Overall, we lacked grip compared to the other competitors, which made it difficult to hold our position. Still, I’m enjoying racing on this circuit so far, and we’ve learned something that will be useful for Sunday’s race,” Bortoleto explained.

The main race

Starting from the back row of the grid, Bortoleto made an impressive launch in Sunday’s race, immediately attacking his rivals. Within just two corners, he had already overtaken four competitors. However, while battling with Oliver Bearman, he found himself on the dirty part of the track and spun, ending up in the gravel trap. He managed to recover and rejoin the race, and the team called him into the pits for a tire change. He switched to a fresh set of hard tires and returned to the track, but significantly behind the pack. Despite this setback, he displayed strong pace within the car’s expectations, posting consistently fast lap times and gradually closing the gap to the rest of the field.

On lap 27, Bortoleto made another pit stop, and after an efficient stop by the team, he rejoined the race 15 seconds behind his teammate Nico Hülkenberg. Fully focused and setting impressive lap times, Gabriel steadily reduced the gap lap after lap until he overtook Hülkenberg on lap 47, moving into 18th place. Maintaining his strong rhythm, by the end of the 56-lap race, Bortoleto crossed the finish line in 14th place, almost 10 seconds ahead of Hülkenberg.

“Today definitely wasn’t an ideal race. After the first-lap incident, I focused on recovering and gathering as much information as possible about the car. Although our position was not great, it was good to complete the race, as it was my first full-length Grand Prix. I treated it as an opportunity to learn more about tire management and our pace, understanding where we stand compared to the others. It is hard to say where we could have finished with a cleaner race. Obviously, I wanted this weekend to be more positive. We will keep working, head back to the factory to analyze what we have learned from these first two races, and prepare for Suzuka. I am really looking forward to racing there… I’ve practiced a lot in the simulator and can’t wait to finally drive on the real track,” concluded the driver sponsored by Banco BRB, KitKat, and Porto.

Pictures: Stake F1 Team | Kick Sauber

Press office of Gabriel Bortoleto
Responsible journalist: Flávio Quick