Gabriel Bortoleto’s first qualifying session of the 2026 Formula 1 season is complete. This Saturday (7) at the Australian GP, the Audi driver set a time of 1min20s221 to start tenth at Albert Park – he also had problems with his Audi at the end of Q2.
Read more F1: Verstappen crashes in Q1 and fails to set a time in qualifying in Australia
The first part of the qualifying session began and the driver of car #5 had 15 minutes for his attempts to stay among the 16 fastest – in the new qualifying format, six drivers would be eliminated in Q1 and six in Q2, leaving ten for Q3.
When he completed his fastest lap with just under 12 minutes remaining, the Audi driver put himself at the top of the table with 1min20s495. At that moment, he was using soft tires and had already completed five laps.
With just over seven minutes to the checkered flag in Q1, then, a red flag. Surprisingly, it was caused by Max Verstappen, who crashed at turn 1 during his first attempt at a fast lap – at that moment, Gabriel was in eighth.
The session was restarted and the competitors were back on track. Bortoleto stayed in the pits, but with 1 minute left in the first phase, the driver still held ninth place, managing to advance to Q2.
The second of the three parts of the Formula 1 Australian GP qualifying began, and as the pitlane opening counted down, Gabriel was in line waiting to leave the pits. At that moment, he was on new soft tires.
After his first lap, the Audi driver hadn’t set a fast lap, only an installation lap, and was only in 12th, more than 17s5 behind George Russell, in first. But there were still more than eight minutes to get into the top 10.
Read more F1: Check out the full qualifying result for the 2026 Australian GP
When he finally nailed his lap, he recorded 1min20s374 and jumped to ninth, just 0s127 faster than Pierre Gasly, who was 11th and the first in the elimination zone.
Final stretch of Q2, last attempts, and Bortoleto had his final opportunity to try to fight for the top 10. With two minutes on the clock, the competitor was in 11th place but was about to start a lap in Melbourne.
The second part of qualifying in Australia ended and with 1min20s221, the Brazilian managed to jump to tenth and, thus, went to Q3. Meanwhile, Nico Hülkenberg will start 11th.
It turns out that while returning to the pits, Gabriel’s Audi ended up stopping at the pitlane entrance and was not in neutral. Unable to continue on his own, he needed help to return to the pits and, therefore, could not return to the track.
With the track marshals assisting in the car’s recovery and without going to Q3, Bortoleto starts tenth in his first race with Audi. “Gabriel faced a technical issue during his in-lap at the end of Q2. As a result, he will not be able to participate in Q3. The team is investigating the issue,” a team representative told the F1 website.
Read more F1: Bortoleto believes 8th was possible on the Australia grid: «Fight with the Racing Bulls»
