Gabriel Bortoleto explains China lap 1 spin that he is “not proud of”

Gabriel Bortoleto admitted that he is “not proud of” his opening-lap spin in the Chinese Grand Prix that severely hampered his chances of scoring his first points in Formula 1.

Having qualified 19th on the grid in his Sauber, Bortoleto was trying to pass the Haas of fellow F1 rookie Oliver Bearman when he lost the rear end of his car at Turn 6 and ended up in the gravel.

The 20-year-old was able to rejoin the track but had to pit at the end of the lap, committing him to a two-stop strategy when most of his rivals were only pitting once during the race.

Consequently, he struggled to 17th place in his first dry race in F1, before moving to 14th in the final classification as Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly were all excluded from the results for failing technical checks.

Speaking afterwards, Bortoleto took full responsibility for the error, which turned the race into an extended test for the Brazilian.

“[It was] a shame from Lap 1 – obviously [I’m] not proud of what happened there,” Bortoleto told F1’s official site. “I went to overtake Ollie and then got too much rubber on the outside of the track.

“I was in the dirty line and I lost the rear, couldn’t keep it and, you know, Lap 1 [there was] a lot of the turbulence as well, [I] did a mistake and spun.

“But, to be honest, we know a bit where we are and I was happy to not get trapped in the gravel and be able to run the whole race and experience a bit of a dry race in Formula 1 – it was my actually first full dry race here, so understanding our pace and how we were comparing to the others, that was not bad. It was good for learning to manage the tyres and everything else.”

Bortoleto’s teammate Nico Hulkenberg brought delight for Sauber in the season-opening Australian GP by finishing sixth in tricky wet conditions, but the Shanghai race was much tougher for the Swiss outfit.

Neither driver finished on the lead lap, with Bortoleto admitting that he wouldn’t have had a chance of contending for the points even if he hadn’t spun on the opening lap.

“I think it was difficult to beat them anyway – even if I stayed on track, maybe [I could have gained] one position in front of [Jack] Doohan, maybe.

“But, to be honest, it’s difficult to say. Obviously, I wanted to be a bit in the fight, to have a bit of fun, but it is what it is.”

Double trouble for Sauber

Sauber’s opening-lap woes were compounded by Hulkenberg going off at Turn 3 and dropping from 12th to 19th position.

While he did not need to make an unscheduled pitstop like Bortoleto, the German could only recover to 15th place in the final reckoning.

“Out of Turn 3, I just completely lost the rear of the car almost, almost tanked it but I went wide at the exit of Turn 3, through the gravel and lost all the positions basically, but also more frustratingly damaged the floor,” he said.

“I lost load after that, which obviously made things very tricky today, so unfortunately that was the beginning of the end very early today.

“I think still with the damage, the team was giving me updates every now and then, and I think pace-wise here and there it wasn’t too bad actually considering the damage we carried.

“I need to look at it, but still good to get the mileage in. Still early days with the new car, so still happy to have finished.”