For a second straight race in F1 2026, Audi driver Gabriel Bortoleto finished in P8, this time at the Belgian GP.
The Brazilian started P8 thanks to grid penalties for Lando Norris and Isack Hadjar. After initially losing two places at the start to Lawson and Colapinto, George Russell’s retirement moved him back up to 9th.
However, he lost out to the defending World Champion and Pierre Gasly on the restart as the driver of car #5 fell to 11th.
Ultimately, though, things came his way. As Alpine triggered the undercut with car #10 at the end of the 13th tour, the Racing Bulls and Franco Colapinto all followed in the next couple of laps.
The VSC appeared on lap 20. This allowed Gabriel Bortoleto to have a much cheaper stop, jumping the Racing Bulls and Alpine cars in the process.
For the remaining 24 laps, it was an intense time attack vs Arvid Lindblad. In those 21 laps, the gap reduced from 2.5s to 1.2s but Bortoleto did an outstanding job to finish P8 in the 2026 F1 Belgian GP.
Gabriel Bortoleto thrilled with result in 2026 F1 Belgian GP
Speaking in the print media pen, the 21-year-old outlined how pleased he was and how tough it was in the first stint as he could not attack the Alpines due to Audi’s performance deficit on the engine side.
“Yeah, very, very happy.
“I think the team did an amazing job today, good strategy. We knew the only way to fight against these other cars, even if we had better pace than most of them. I would say Racing Bulls had a little bit more than us.
“But it was just impossible to overtake the Alpines or any other cars if we were on the overtake zone train.
“And I think we managed to extract everything we had today. We extended the first stint, we got the Virtual Safety Car, and then we were alone, we had free air, and we managed to put some great laps out there.”
Holding off Arvid Lindblad
In the second stint, Gabriel Bortoleto was on the absolute limit in the middle sector, having to push through the corners to gain lap time. The Audi chassis is extremely strong for its first year since taking over from Sauber, with the engine understandably not quite up to par right now.
As the Racing Bulls F1 driver was gaining anywhere between 0.6-0.8s in Sectors 1 and 3, the young Brazilian impressively did enough to fend him off and keep him outside a second for the final 24 laps. His pace in S2 was extremely strong.
Gabriel Bortoleto explained the intensity of it after the 2026 F1 Belgian GP.
“It was tough, it was tough.
“I could see that it was catching me massively in Sector 1 and 3, and I knew I had to nail sector 2 perfectly, all the corners, all the laps, for like 25 laps.
“And every time I was missing a tiny bit of an apex of a corner, I really felt it. I could see the delta in my steering going lower, it was very intense.”
Ahead of Alpine but a very close fight with Racing Bulls after 2026 F1 Belgian GP: Gabriel Bortoleto
While Arvid Lindblad is sure Audi are faster than them in the corners, as evidenced on Sunday, Gabriel Bortoleto was a bit more wary of making predictions.
Nonetheless, he is convinced Audi are now faster than Alpine, although passing them in a race is incredibly difficult due to how far down they are in a straight-line, as Gabriel Bortoleto discovered again in the first stint.
On paper, Hungary this weekend should suit Audi more and could well lead the midfield fight. Gabriel Bortoleto was outstanding at this venue last year for Sauber, qualifying P7 and finishing 6th.
“Yeah, I think we are ahead of Alpines for sure.
“But when we are fighting with them, we cannot overtake in the middle of the corners because that’s impossible and on the straights they are able to pull away.
“Unless we manage to stay ahead of them and create a gap, it’s difficult to race against them, in a track like this at least. In tracks that you have less straights, it’s a bit easier.
“But I would say Racing Bulls, for now it’s a little bit ahead of us. We are catching, we are coming closer, and we are coming out of the tracks that are, let’s say, our weaknesses.”
