Underdog Australian GP qualifying star explains odd stoppage

Gabriel Bortoleto’s impressive qualifying performance for Audi at Formula 1’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix was halted by a technical issue.

The Brazilian, embarking on his sophomore F1 season with the former Sauber squad, was one of the stars of qualifying in Melbourne as he featured towards the top of the timesheet in Q1 and narrowly squeezed his Audi into the top-10 shootout.

But Bortoleto took no part in Q3 after his Audi broke down in the pit entry at the very end of Q2. Bortoleto’s sudden stoppage almost caused a big pile up, with Arvid Lindblad locking up and just avoiding a collision with Racing Bulls team-mate Liam Lawson.

Audi is yet to get to the bottom of the issue but Bortoleto insisted he is “not too worried about it” and is “convinced” it will only be a small problem that can be easily fixed.

“I just spent half a lap trying to engage gears,” Bortoleto explained. “My gears were failing.

“It’s the first time we have a reliability problem this weekend. It happened a few times in FP [free practice] that we had gears not coming in, but it happened now and now was a bit like we couldn’t do anything about it.

“Still a strong qualifying, Q3 first time with Audi, I didn’t expect that and I don’t think many people did. It’s just a shame I couldn’t fight for more in quali because I genuinely think we had potential.

“We need to analyse what happened at the end of quali for me, because I hope it doesn’t happen tomorrow.”

Bortoleto is optimistic about Audi’s chances in Sunday’s grand prix, adding: “I think our long runs have normally been quite decent. I’m quite confident for tomorrow.”

Hulkenberg ‘fighting fires’ in Audi

In the other Audi, Nico Hulkenberg had a less smooth qualifying. The veteran German was unable to join his team-mate in Q3 and had to settle with 11th. 

After the session, Hulkenberg revealed his Audi had been plagued with technical gremlins throughout qualifying.

“Very positive given also in Q1 we were fighting a lot fires with my car with things that weren’t working how they are supposed to,” Hulkenberg said.

“It was pretty hectic and interesting and didn’t really get a rhythm and only had one, good, clean lap in Q2, which put me where I am. All things considered, I don’t think we’re in a bad spot.

“A lot of teams are facing issues. There are so many things still to learn and clean up. But very decent for a first one and I think we’re obviously competitive in the midfield.”

Hulkenberg believes Sunday’s season-opener will be “about survival, and then anything can happen.”