30/06/2025
NEWS STORY
Not only does he score his first F1 points, Gabriel Bortoleto gets to battle his manager and mentor Fernando Alonso.
"It feels like we had a very intense battle, probably the most intense battle I have had in F1 so far," said the Brazilian following his scrap with the wily, two-time world champion.
"Outside, inside, and then playing with the blue flags as well with Norris and then Oscar," he added. "It has been a crazy one, you know?
"Nothing more to say, just a great battle and I'm glad that I've been able to fight with Fernando until the end of the race for these points."
With teammate Nico Hulkenberg finishing ninth Stake left the mountains with 6 points and thereby remains in a three-way battle with Haas and Aston Martin which sees the three teams covered by just three points.
"We did a great job on the pit stops, we did a great job with the strategy," said the Brazilian. "I feel like we did everything that was in our hands.
"I just hope that we can keep this up," he admitted, "a weekend like this repeating every single weekend. I think we can score more points in the season and have great results."
Having qualified an amazing 8th, while his veteran teammate could only manage 20th, shortly after the first round of pit stops the Swiss team elected to allow Bortoleto to pass his teammate, who had been among the first to stop.
The Brazilian ran as high as fifth before his second stop, after which, having rejoined in tenth, he made short work of Hadjar before latching on to the tail of his mentor, Alonso.
What began as a 9s gap was gradually whittled down, despite the fact both drivers had to deal with being lapped by the McLarens.
"I always knew I was capable of it," said the Brazilian. "I'm not in Formula 1 for a random reason. It's just good to be in the points finally, more for the team than for myself because they really deserve to have points and everything.
"For myself, I'm here because I want to win one day. I'm not going to be happy because I scored a few points, you know? But for sure it's already an achievement. We should be happy with every small achievement and we are going in the right direction to achieve our bigger dream, which will one day be winning championships."
At race end Alonso and Hulkenberg were quick to congratulate the youngster.
"Since Barcelona there's been a change of momentum," said the German, "and I think we have much more of a grip now on the car and on the season.
"We seem to be performing much better, especially in the race stints, which is obviously very encouraging and where we wanted to be at the start of the season.
"We will try to continue this," he continued, "it's never easy, we always have to work hard but I'm happy and optimistic for now."
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