Bortoleto praises ‘incredible’ work by Audi to secure back-to-back P8 finishes

Gabriel Bortoleto enjoyed consecutive points finishes for the first time this season in Great Britain and Belgium, leaving him to celebrate the “incredible” hard work that Audi have done to get involved in the midfield battle.

The team’s season got off to an ideal start as Bortoleto crossed the line ninth at the Australian Grand Prix, but a run of misfortune and frustrating near misses – including three P11s in a row in Monaco, Barcelona and Austria – caused Audi to drop further behind their rivals in the standings.

Audi seemed to turn a corner at Silverstone as the 21-year-old climbed three positions to take his best result of the season, which he matched at the most recent event in Belgium after impressing with another Q3 appearance.

“[I’m] extremely happy,” he said after Sunday's race. “I think that’s everything we could achieve this weekend.

“What can I say? The team did an incredible job. It’s also great to do this in front of more than 500 employees that came all the way from Switzerland, Bicester, Neuburg to watch us here. For sure, it was a great result.”

The Belgian Grand Prix also marked four years since Audi first revealed their intentions to enter F1, making Bortoleto’s strong drive to P8 a necessary reminder of the progress they have made.

Asked how much of a boost it was for the team, he replied: “I hope a lot. For me at least it’s a big boost. Obviously it’s incredible to have the feeling that we are being able to deliver results like this constantly now, and be fighting for points.”

Both Bortoleto and his team mate Nico Hulkenberg showed that they can fight with the higher midfield outfits like Racing Bulls and Alpine, but the German driver once again missed out on scoring his first points of the season.

He was embroiled in a fantastic contest with Franco Colapinto, Pierre Gasly and Liam Lawson in the final stages of the race at Spa-Francorchamps and ultimately placed P13, which was still a positive result considering he suffered a sudden hydraulic leak during Qualifying.

It was another sign of Audi’s struggles with reliability, which have been a factor in Hulkenberg failing to score this season. With the exception of retirements in Miami, Barcelona and Great Britain, he has come close to the top 10 in every race.

Summarising his experience in Belgium, Hulkenberg said: “It was okay, a lot of fighting in the midfield but I was kind of paying the price for starting too far back. I think both our cars lost quite a bit on the start of Lap 1, so that makes life even harder.

“Otherwise, I think the performance is there, the speed for the midfield battle [is there]. I think we were best of the rest together with the Racing Bulls, from what I can see, so that’s pretty positive and encouraging.”