Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto will be starting the Miami GP in P13 after clocking in a 1:27.151 in Qualifying. He narrowly missed out on Q3 by just 0.184s as Haas’ Esteban Ocon took the last spot in Q3 with his Q2 timing of 1:26.967.
Bortoleto’s Q2 appearance also meant he out-qualified his veteran teammate Nico Hulkenburg for the second time this season. Hulkenburg not making it out to Q1. The only other time the Brazilian driver had out-qualified the German was earlier this year at the Chinese Grand Prix during the Sprint Qualifying.
Bortoleto on finally making it to Q2 at the Miami GP
Despite the obvious disappointment of missing out on Q3, Bortoleto is happy to finally make a Q2 appearance again. His last Q2 appearance was back during the season opener in Melbourne where he had qualified P15. He also isn’t too disappointed with his timing as he wasn’t that far off Ocon.
“There is a bit of frustration, but I don’t want to be ungrateful, you know, finally I’m back in Q2 after a couple of very tough rounds. So I’m glad that we are back in Q2, I’ve done a decent job today in quali. I will always push myself as much as I want, as much as I can, and I will always be aware of the mistakes I do, but I need also to accept when I do an ok job, and today was a decent job.”
“Obviously, no one does the perfect lap, I believe, and I didn’t do in Q2, but yeah, two tenths off Q3 is not a bad result, and I’m glad that I felt comfortable with the car again, and I’ve managed to put the lap together.”
The best lap of Qualifying
The Brazilian driver’s best lap of Qualifying came during his Q1 session. During his second push lap of the session, he seemed most in sync with the car. Even though it wasn’t his fastest of the session, it was the most put together lap he delivered. Bortoleto spoke on the lap saying it was “unreal”.
“I think the second lap in Q1 was unreal, I just felt so good with the car and was in the perfect window.”
“And then I improved in my third push in Q1, but it was like a little bit, and just because of track evolution, but I generally think my best lap of all the quali was my second push in Q1, and then in Q2 was an ok, decent job, but in my last push, for example, I had a big snap out of T1 trying to go on power early and failed it, so yeah, just glad I’ve been able to do a good lap in Q1, put me in Q2 and fight for Q3 somehow.”
Tyre temperature troubles
Tyre temperatures were also a major talking point during qualifying and is a factor that could affect a driver’s lap time. Bortoleto spoke on his own experience with the matter. He brought up learning to manage the tyre temperature while ensuring he was sticking to the FIA mandated regulations which did have an effect on the temperature of his tyres before his runs.
“Well, it’s a bit weird, because sometimes you’re queuing in the end of the pit lane and the tyre temperatures drop a lot, so you can push a bit more through the out lap, and you are in a good position, and sometimes you don’t queue, like in my last push, and then you need to follow the FIA delta, minimum delta, and you want to slow down a bit more to cool the tyres, but you cannot, so you need to manage and you need to also be aware of what can happen if you start the lap too hot.”
