One step away from Williams in the Constructors’ Championship
The number 8 reflects a positive moment for Gabriel Bortoleto and for Audi, which in the last two GPs in Great Britain and Belgium saw its Brazilian driver cross the finish line in eighth position. Always starting from 8th place on the grid, the Brazilian was the protagonist of a race that brought valuable points to the Four Rings team, now one point behind Williams, which, curiously also here, occupies eighth place in the Constructors’ standings.
Result of the team’s work
Bortoleto’s goal now is to continue on this path at the Hungarian Grand Prix, the last before the summer break, where the German manufacturer could achieve a hat-trick of consecutive top ten results: “I am extremely satisfied with today’s result – commented the South American driver – I believe we made the most of everything we had available this weekend, and this is thanks to the incredible commitment of the entire team. Achieving this result ahead of our teammates from the Hinwil, Bicester, and Neuburg sites makes it even more special: they worked hard to bring us here, and it’s fantastic to share this moment with them. These consecutive points finishes are a great boost for all of us. It’s a fantastic feeling to know we are capable of achieving results like these and to keep fighting for the top ten. That’s where we want to be, that’s where we deserve to be, and we will continue to strive for more, starting from Budapest in a week, to close the first part of the season on a high note.”
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Still at zero
The difficult moment continues instead for Nico Hülkenberg, so far never in the points and 13th at Spa-Francorchamps: “Today there was a lot of fighting in the midfield, but we paid the price of starting too far back and losing some positions at the start, which made the race even harder. From there, it was inevitable that it would be complex to recover. The encouraging thing is that our race pace was competitive and we stayed in the fight throughout the race. The Virtual Safety Car gained us a few seconds, but it probably should have lasted a bit longer. Instead, I came out right behind Gasly and Lawson, got involved in that battle, and with our poor straight-line speed, it was difficult to make further progress. The race pace itself seemed quite good by our standards, so that’s something we will take with us, even though we need to review other areas. It’s great to see Gabriel scoring points for the team. It’s a deserved result and another positive outcome for everyone. We hope to build on this in Budapest, have a smooth weekend on my side of the garage, and give ourselves the chance to fight for higher positions.”
