Gabriel Bortoleto finished the free practice sessions of the Formula 1 Belgian GP in ninth place. In the last session held this Saturday (18), the Brazilian clocked 1min47s049 to finish inside the top 10.
Read more F1: Check out the full result of TL3 of the 2026 Belgian GP
In this last activity before the drivers head to the Belgian qualifying, the temperature was cooler compared to the earlier free practice sessions. The thermometer showed 20ºC, while the asphalt reached 34ºC and the humidity was at 61%.
With the clock already running at Spa-Francorchamps, Gabriel, like much of the field, initially stayed in the pits.
More than ten minutes into this TL3 and the Audi Brazilian was still in the pits. Other names who also had not gone out included George Russell, Kimi Antonelli, and Max Verstappen, for example.
Finally, when he went out, the competitor was using the soft tire. When he completed his first fast lap, he was in seventh position with 1min48s492, 1.056 seconds behind the leader Lewis Hamilton.
As the session progressed, Bortoleto remained on track but did not set a new time. As a result, he dropped to 11th place – Nico Hülkenberg was in 14th place about 0.3 seconds behind his teammate.
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In the second half of the session, with 22 minutes remaining on the clock, the Brazilian went to the pits and was stationary at that moment. His time was still 1min48s464.
Near the end, Bortoleto set another fast lap and considerably improved his time, jumping from 13th to eighth by recording 1min47s049, 1.059 seconds behind Antonelli, the leader.
In the final seconds, Lewis Hamilton crashed and caused a yellow flag – at the same spot as Pierre Gasly. However, it did not affect the session’s progress.
Checkered flag and Bortoleto finished in ninth place on the timing sheet, one position behind teammate Hülkenberg by just over 0.1 seconds.
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