Gabriel Bortoleto wins opening round of F-Regional Asia

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Gabriel Bortoleto wins opening round of F-Regional Asia

KTF Sports’ driver had great weekend in Abu Dhabi

After the electrifying closing of the Formula 1 World Championship last year, the Yas Marina circuit, in the United Arab Emirates, received this weekend an important international competition. With 27 drivers on the grid, started the Formula Regional Asian Championship that, right from the get go, saw the Brazilian Flag on the top step of the podium and the National Anthem echoing throughout the track.

 The driver Gabriel Bortoleto, representing KTF Sports Academy, has shown that he is in great shape and, right in the second race of the year, demonstrated his skills winning the race from end to end.

Following the new determination of the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) the Formula Regional competitions are the new denomination of the Formula 3 Championships of the same region, such as Europe, Asia, Americas, etc. The Asian Championship of this season, that had its calendar united completely in 5 weeks in a row of competition, attracted lots of internationally highlighted drivers due to offering important points for the F1 Superlicence and, more than that, an excellent preparation for the season that will start only by the end of April in Monza – Italy. Besides Bortoleto, only Brazilian in the Championship, other important names of the international junior categories were subscribed to take part, for example Arthur Leclerc, Sebastian Montoya, Gabriele Mini, Isack Hadjar, Paul Aron, Dino Beganovic, Leonardo Fornaroli, amongst others. 

The opening weekend of the Championship started with a few practice sessions on Wednesday and Thursday that were also a kind of pre-season for the young drivers from around the World to adapt to the car and the layout of the sumptuous track. As the competition happens in 5 weekends in a row, the practices were vital for drivers and teams to collect the biggest amount of data possible and, with that, followed through in the ideal preparation of their cars for the competition.

Bortoleto, always amongst the fastest on track, went on optimistically for the first race weekend of 2022. With the car #18 of the R-Ace GP team, the 17-year-old Brazilian was a bit hampered in his fast lap in the first Qualifying, securing, thus, the 10th place for the first race starting grid. On the second Qualifying, valid for the third race grid, Gabriel got a better rhythm and, with a 1m51s836 time, stayed less than two tenths from the time achieved by the pole-position.

The first race took place on Saturday afternoon. Starting on the 5th row, Gabriel had a good start and gained one position. After the first lap, the Brazilian was positioned to pursue the 8th place when he was touched and ended up spinning on track. Without losing much time, he was able to put the car #18 back in the race on the 21th position. Determined and aware of the excellent car on his hands, Gabriel started pushing for really fast laps and, in an amazing recovery, finished 10th in the race.

The result of the first race assured Bortoleto the right to start from pole-position in the second race. In a literally perfect race, the KTF Sports driver had an exquisite start and followed through without any threats for the win. Even facing two Safety Car interventions during the race, the driver was well positioned during the restarts and only had the job to celebrate the win with the team at the end of the 15 laps.

The last and decisive race of the weekend initiated with another great start from Gabriel, jumping from 4th to 1st. However, a massive crash forced the interruption of the race with a red flag and 30 minutes after, the race was restarted with the original grid positions and the cars behind the Safety Car. Gabriel, in a race where he started pretty aggressive, even got the third place for some time. Nevertheless, on the second half of the race the car #18 from the R-Ace GP didn’t had the same grip conditions of his main competitors and, thus, Bortoleto lost three positions, finishing the race on the 6th place.

After the opening three rounds of the Championship, Gabriel Bortoleto is 4th on the Championship with 34 points. Gabriele Mini is the first scoring 43 points, followed by Arthur Leclerc, 40 points and Sabastian Montoya, 38 points.

The second round of Formula Regional Asian Series will be disputed on the next weekend, between the 28th and 30th of January, on the Dubai Circuit, also on the United Arab Emirates.

“I’m quite satisfied with our Championship opening here in Abu Dhabi. The car was really fast since the first practices of the week and with a lot of work managed to stay within the firsts in all of the sessions. The level is very high and we have at least 10 to 12 drivers with pretty much equal chances of winning. After being touched in the first race, I was able to recover very well and finish it in 10th. On the second race, from end to end, the victory came spectacularly. On the last race, after the restart I tried everything to recover and seek better positions, but, with the already degraded tires that was very hard. I leave here in 4th place in the Championship and quite excited for Dubai next week”, concluded the 17 years old Brazilian.