In the Sprint Race this Saturday, held in England, the Brazilian made an overtake on the last corner to secure third place

This Saturday (6th), the Silverstone Circuit in England hosted the Sprint Race of the eighth round of the Formula 2 World Championship. The drivers and teams in the international competition faced the challenges of a very wet track, with rain falling almost throughout the entire race.

Fresh off a spectacular victory last weekend at Red Bull Ring, Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto, a driver in McLaren F1’s young talent program, arrived very excited for the weekend’s competition. After qualifying with a time that would allow him to start fifth today and sixth in tomorrow’s race, the young driver from São Paulo focused and prepared for the race start.

Due to the severe track conditions, the start was authorized with the cars behind the safety car and in motion. Bortoleto, who openly enjoys racing in wet conditions, quickly went after his competitors and, on the outside, managed to overtake Jak Crawford (USA), moving up to fourth place. With a fast and very secure drive, he pursued the drivers ahead. However, after four laps, the race had to be interrupted due to the heavy rain on the circuit.

About 20 minutes later, the race resumed. Bortoleto, with a good restart, managed to hold onto fourth place but faced heavy pressure from Crawford and Franco Colapinto (ARG) just behind him. Highly focused, the driver, supported by the Invicta Racing team, gradually distanced himself from his rivals and set his sights on a podium finish.

With five laps to go, a Safety Car intervention bunched the field again, and with three laps remaining, the race restarted. Gabriel then went after his teammate Kush Maini (IND) just ahead. The Brazilian driver studied his opponent closely, got very close on the last lap, and overtook Kush in the penultimate corner, jumping to third place. Kush attempted to regain the position, but Bortoleto maintained his outside trajectory and, despite being pushed off track by his teammate, continued accelerating and crossed the finish line in third place. Kimi Antonelli (ITA) won the race, followed by Zane Maloney (BAR) in second.
With this result, he scored six more points for the Championship, now totaling 91 points in third place, 15 points behind French driver Isac Hadjar, the runner-up in the standings.

“I had a lot of fun in today’s race. I started fifth and finished third with an overtake on my teammate in the last corner. He did not make it easy at any moment, spending the whole race trying to push me off track a bit. But I managed to pass him in the end. It was great; here in Silverstone, there’s this whole motorsport atmosphere, all these fans… Plus, it was in the rain, and I scored very important points for the Championship,” commented the driver.

Bortoleto further analyzed the race, commenting on the significant difficulty posed by the constantly changing track conditions. “These conditions with significant changes in the weather make the race extremely difficult to manage. We started the race with a certain amount of rain, then it increased until the red flag. Then it stopped, and we returned to the track, and lap by lap, the track naturally dried out. All of this greatly affects our driving style. It constantly changes our braking and acceleration references. It’s a matter of a lot of adaptation, not to mention the usual concern of managing tire degradation. I believe that if I had managed to overtake Kush a bit earlier, I would have had a chance to chase second place, but I definitely did my best,” concluded the Brazilian driver sponsored by McLaren, Banco BRB, Porto, Ebury, Snapdragon, and Barthelemy.

Pictures: James Gasperotti | Disclosure