Gabriel Bortoleto finished the Hungarian F1 GP this Sunday (26) in 11th place. In the last race before the summer break, the Brazilian narrowly missed finishing another race in the points zone.
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Of the days of activities, the race moment was the hottest of the weekend. The thermometer was at 30ºC, while the asphalt reached 52ºC and humidity was around 26%.
For the start, the Brazilian was one of the few who started on soft tires. The Audi driver lined up from the seventh row alongside Franco Colapinto, who opted for the medium compound.
Start authorized at Hungaroring and the competitor dropped two positions to 16th, but soon managed to recover ground and moved up to 13th, gaining a position compared to the start – this was because George Russell stalled and fell to the back of the pack.
On the fifth lap, Bortoleto began to approach Esteban Ocon, who was 12th. In fact, the Frenchman had been complaining to Haas that Gabriel was ‘coming at me’, as he was 0.3s behind.
Five laps later, with Russell recovering positions, Gabriel dropped to 14th once again, sticking to the rear of the Frenchman in front of him. The competitor was only 0.1s behind, but still couldn’t complete the overtake.
Finally, on lap 15, when the first stop for those on soft tires was already expected, Bortoleto managed to leave Ocon behind and took 13th place. Now, he was more than 4s behind Pierre Gasly, who was 11th.
As competitors were stopping, the Audi driver was moving up the standings, already appearing in tenth, but he himself still needed to make his pit stop. At that point, the team came to say that due to the good pace, they were switching to plan C.
30 laps completed out of the 70 planned for the Hungarian F1 GP and still without stopping, Gabriel was in ninth place. The driver began to complain about significant tire degradation, but at this point, he could already stop to make just one for the race.
And it was precisely at this moment that the Brazilian went to the pits to change compounds. When he returned to the track, he was in 14th and on hard tires. Shortly after, he passed Fernando Alonso and was 13th.
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On lap 39, the driver of car #5 managed to leave the Alpine Frenchman behind to take 12th place, now behind teammate Nico Hülkenberg. Gabriel was gradually closing in on the German and was 9.7s behind.
On lap 40, Nico pitted and Gabriel took 11th place, once again narrowly missing the points, being just under 10s behind Arvid Lindblad, who was tenth.
With Liam Lawson of Racing Bulls pitting, the Brazilian was now inside the top-10 and increasingly reducing the gap to Lindblad, 5.5s behind the Briton.
With less than 20 laps to the checkered flag, Bortoleto was gaining more and more on Arvid, being 3.4s behind his opponent. Meanwhile, Lawson also began to pressure, being 6.6s behind the Brazilian.
Already near the end, a virtual safety car became necessary due to problems with Oscar Piastri, who stopped on track and retired. At that point, several drivers went to the pits, but Gabriel ended up staying on track and moved up to ninth.
With ten laps to go, Lawson stuck to Bortoleto’s rear and after a brief battle, managed to pass the Brazilian, who dropped to tenth, still within the points zone. Subsequently, Hülkenberg also passed the driver, who then fell out of the points zone.
Approaching the checkered flag, Gabriel began to close in on Lindblad, being 1.1s behind the Racing Bulls opponent and chasing another point in the 2026 season.
Checkered flag and Bortoleto finishes 11th in the Hungarian Formula 1 GP, the last race before the 2026 season’s summer break.
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