Gabriel Bortoleto completed the Spanish F1 GP, a race held this Sunday (13) in Madrid, Spain, in 13th place. The Audi driver bet on a strategy where he started and stayed on hard tires for 48 laps at Madring, a semi-permanent circuit located in the Spanish capital, finishing on soft tires, after spending most of the race in the points zone.
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After starting from 12th position using hard tires, Bortoleto dropped three positions at the start, recovering one place still in the initial lap of the race. On the sixth lap, the Brazilian Audi driver took advantage of a brake problem for Lewis Hamilton to move up to 13th place. The driver stayed close to Pierre Gasly, but without managing to overtake.
The Virtual Safety Car was deployed on lap 15 after an accident involving Lance Stroll, and Bortoleto chose to stay on track, which allowed him to advance to ninth position, still behind Gasly, who also chose not to visit the pits. More than that, the Brazilian could no longer stay close to the French Alpine driver, but was faster than Franco Colapinto, tenth with the other Alpine.
With 34 laps, still without visiting the pits, Bortoleto set the fastest lap of the race. One lap later, the Brazilian complained about the performance of the hard tires with Audi, while Colapinto began to reduce the gap to the Brazilian again. On lap 40, the Argentine launched an attack on the Brazilian, who moved up to eighth after a pit stop by Oscar Piastri on lap 44.
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Bortoleto was attacked again by Colapinto, who was bringing Piastri with him on lap 46, who had an incident noticed on lap 48 for moving during braking. By this time the Argentine Alpine driver had passed the Brazilian, who went to the pits on lap 48, dropping to 13th place, putting on soft tires for the final part of the race.
The driver of Audi car number 5 was investigated for movement during braking, but received only a warning from the race direction. The soft compounds were much faster compared to the competitors ahead, but the distance was too great. Thus, Bortoleto finished the race in 13th.
Formula 1 will continue in two Sundays, when the Azerbaijan GP will be held, a race scheduled for the Baku street circuit, the Azeri capital.
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