Gabriel Bortoleto placed Audi in ninth position on the starting grid for the Formula 1 Dutch GP in Zandvoort. The Brazilian was defined by the team as ‘the best of the rest’ after a qualifying session in which he had to recover from a difficult Q1.
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Audi also ended the day with Nico Hulkenberg in 13th, while the German had a difficult start in the Sprint race due to a power issue. Despite this, Allan McNish, the team’s racing director, assessed that the pace shown allows dreaming of points with both cars in the race.
Bortoleto stated that he was almost eliminated still in Q1, but managed to react and advance to the top 10: “I had difficulties in Q1 and was almost knocked out, but I kept my head down, did the lap I needed and managed to get through to reach the top ten,” he said. The Brazilian driver considered ninth position the maximum possible and highlighted being satisfied with the car’s performance.
McNish also highlighted Bortoleto’s recovery, who had suffered a strong exit at turn 1 during Q1. According to the director, the Brazilian driver responded well to the pressure and delivered a competitive lap at the end of the session: “Gabi had very strong laps in all sessions and did a very good lap to qualify as ‘the best of the rest’ in P9,” he commented.
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On the other side of the garage, Hulkenberg had a less positive qualifying session and finished 13th. After the power issue in the Sprint, Audi managed to solve it before qualifying, but the German admitted that he still has not found confidence consistently in Zandvoort: “This is a track where pace and confidence are really important, and we still haven’t been able to find that consistently this weekend,” he added.
Even with the distinct results, McNish believes that the race pace shown by Audi can open space for a fight for points: “Our race pace is good, so I think we can fight for points with both cars tomorrow,” he concluded.
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