Unhappy Gabriel Bortoleto lashes out at ‘embarrassed’ Kimi Antonelli
“Obviously, he doesn’t want to see any car ahead of him, losing a position in Monaco is quite embarrassing...”
Gabriel Bortoleto was left unimpressed by Kimi Antonelli’s “embarrassing” overtake which led to him picking up damage in the F1 Monaco Grand Prix.
F1 rookies Bortoleto and Antonelli clashed as they battled to try and make up positions on the opening lap of last weekend’s race at the principality.
After Bortoleto pulled off an impressive overtake around the outside of Antonelli’s Mercedes at the hairpin, the 18-year-old Italian returned the favour at Portier.
With nowhere to go following Antonelli’s lunge, Bortoleto ended up hitting the barriers. The Brazilian was able to reverse his Sauber out of the wall and limp back to the pits for a new front wing.
And the reigning Formula 2 champion was not pleased with Antonelli’s driving, claiming his rival made a “very optimistic move”.
“It’s a shame what happened there on the first lap, I think I managed to make a very solid move in Turn 6 in the hairpin, so it was very nice around the outside and I gained a position,” Bortoleto said.
“Obviously, he doesn’t want to see any car ahead of him, losing a position in Monaco is quite embarrassing, it’s bad because normally, historically you don’t lose position but you don’t gain as well.
“And I think he tried a very optimistic move there. We have seen a lot of crashes there in the past, it’s not the first time.
“He didn’t touch me, but he just went straight and to avoid crashing into him, I crashed into the wall and destroyed my front wing, needed to reverse, go back to the pits and unfortunately that’s how my race ended up.”
Bortoleto undecided over Antonelli talks
After Sunday’s race, Bortoleto, who finished 14th, was undecided whether he would reach out to Antonelli, who ended up P18, to discuss the incident.
“I don’t know. For sure he didn’t want to put me in the wall or anything. He ended up doing it in my opinion. At some point I will talk to him but I don’t know, I need to think about it,” he added.
“I don’t want to create any trouble, it’s not like we are fighting for any title here or podium or any points in that moment, so I don’t see why he would do that, would risk something like that. At the same time, we are racing so we need to race hard against each other but there is a limit.”
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