Brazilian driver finished second in Sunday’s race at Spa-Francorchamps

The 10th round of the Formula 2 World Championship concluded this Sunday. At the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium, Brazilian driver Gabriel Bortoleto finished the Feature Race in second place. With this result, he has taken the runner-up position in the Championship standings with four rounds remaining in the season.

The weekend in Belgium started on Friday with free practice and qualifying sessions. Bortoleto, experiencing a rise in the Championship, arrived highly motivated and determined to score as many points as possible in the two upcoming races.

In free practice, Bortoleto went out on the track to confirm the car’s adjustments and settings, but only managed four fast laps as the session was interrupted by an accident. He ended up in 10th place. A few hours later, the cars returned to the track for the qualifying. Gabriel, extremely focused, recorded a good time on the first set of tires, showing he was in the fight for pole position. On the second set of tires, in an almost perfect lap, the Brazilian registered a time of 1m57.127, securing second place on the grid for the Feature Race and ninth for Saturday’s race.

As is often the case at Spa-Francorchamps, rain significantly impacted the competition. On Saturday, the Sprint Race was scheduled for 9:15 AM (Brazilian time), but weather conditions delayed the race by four hours, starting at 1:25 PM. Despite a very wet track, the cars began the race. Driving conservatively, Bortoleto lost a position but stayed in the middle of the pack. After just three laps, the safety car was deployed due to an accident, and two laps later, the race was stopped with a red flag for safety reasons. Before the cars returned to the pits, the organizers announced the race would not be restarted. Thus, the Invicta Racing driver finished in 10th place.

BACK ON THE PODIUM

This Sunday, however, the story changed. Clear skies and a beautiful morning framed the mountains surrounding the Spa circuit. Bortoleto, highly focused, had a good start in the Feature Race and battled against Paul Aron and Isac Hadjar. The fight between these three, who are effectively the top three in the standings, highlighted the polarization in the battle for the season title. Gabriel was overtaken by Isac Hadjar, who later also passed Aron. Following his pit-stop strategy, Bortoleto stopped on the ninth lap, switching from soft to medium tires. Upon rejoining the track, he was in a “virtual” third position. With a strong pace, he overtook Aron with eight laps remaining and pursued the lead. For three laps, he pressured Hadjar to make a mistake but couldn’t overtake him, deciding instead to conserve his tires and finish the race in second place. This result earned Gabriel 18 points in the standings, plus one more for the fastest lap of the race.

“I am very happy with our result here. It was a weekend of hard work and, above all, intelligence. We had a good car and showed that in qualifying with the second-best time on the grid. Unfortunately, yesterday’s race was chaotic, and we effectively had only two racing laps. Today, on the other hand, was a good race. Despite two safety car interruptions, I managed to get the best out of the car. I tried to win, but I didn’t have the pace to overtake Hadjar. So, second place was excellent in terms of points, and we took the runner-up position in the standings,” commented the 19-year-old driver.

After 10 double rounds, Isac Hadjar leads the Formula 2 Championship with 165 points, followed by Gabriel Bortoleto with 129 points. In August, the F2 World Championship goes on summer break. The next round will be in Monza, Italy, from August 30 to September 1.

Pictures: James Gasperotti | KTF Sports
Press office of Gabriel Bortoleto