Gabriel Bortoleto: I’ll put it in the wall next time!

A Monaco Grand Prix under high tension. While drivers have raised their voices about the lack of spectacle in Monaco, even suggesting the possibility of having two qualifying sessions instead of a race, an audio recording not broadcasted on television has caught attention. In this message, Brazilian driver Gabriel Bortoleto threatens his competitor Andrea Kimi Antonelli to put him into the wall next time they find themselves on track. The two men had an incident during the first lap in Monaco, sending the F2 world champion into the wall at Portier, forcing him to pit for a wing change and compromising his race.

Before the incident, the Brazilian managed to overtake the Italian, who was already struggling this weekend and had been a victim of a crash during qualifying, forcing him to start from the 15th position. Eager to regain his position, the Italian from Mercedes attempted a daring maneuver in turn 8. The turn being too tight for two cars, the Mercedes driver still went for the overtake, ultimately sending his Brazilian rival into the wall at Portier. However, no penalty was given to the Italian. The stewards deemed that the lack of contact between the two drivers justified the non-penalty for the former F2 driver at Prema. A small consolation for Antonelli, who likely experienced his most difficult race, finishing in a distant 18th place.

A desperate maneuver according to Gabriel Bortoleto

The Brazilian was nonetheless very critical of the Italian after the race, even calling his maneuver a divebomb. We overtook him in turn 6, then he attempted a divebomb in turn 8, a place where we’ve already seen many accidents in the past. When you do a divebomb, you commit fully. I was also already committed to the turn, as I didn’t expect such an attack at all. I tried to stay on track, hoping he would leave me a bit of space, but he left me none. I ended up hitting the wall to avoid crashing into him on the inside. In any case, I would have ended up in the wall. It’s a shame because we broke the front wing and lost the advantage of the five positions gained at the start, said the Sauber driver to the media, including PlanetF1.com.

For his part, the Italian driver was keen to justify his overtaking attempt, explaining that he was ahead and that the two drivers didn’t even make contact. “It was an aggressive maneuver, but in the end, I didn’t touch him. And at the apex, I was in front. Obviously, it’s never nice to see someone end up in the wall, and it wasn’t my intention. But in the end, I didn’t touch him and I did my best to leave him as much space as possible. But Monaco is very narrow, these kinds of things can happen,” the Italian analyzed.

A necessary overtake according to Andrea Kimi Antonelli

The Italian did not stop there and explained that this maneuver was crucial for Mercedes’ strategy. Both drivers were indeed positioned one behind the other at the start, and the team had asked Antonelli to be right behind him during the race in order to block the drivers behind and allow Russell to escape in front, as happened at the end of the race. For him, his overtaking was therefore not “dirty.” Of course, I didn’t want to lose the position, because the goal was to stay with George, especially for the strategy. Then, I tried to overtake him again, but I don’t think there was anything shocking.

« I watched the onboard camera, and I didn’t touch him, so nothing dirty or crazy. It was an aggressive maneuver, of course. As I said, my intention was not for him to end up in the wall, just to overtake him. It’s never nice to see someone in the wall, but it wasn’t like in Miami, where I was hit. Here, I absolutely didn’t touch him. » A statement that will undoubtedly not please Gabriel Bortoleto. The reunion between the two drivers could be explosive and might happen as soon as this weekend in Spain.