Gabriel Bortoleto explains best qualifying result of rookie F1 season

Sauber rookie Gabriel Bortoleto feels things are finally “clicking” for him after progressing into Q3 for the first time in the Austrian Grand Prix on Saturday.

While teammate Nico Hulkenberg ended up dead last after a tough day at Spielberg, Bortoleto put in an impressive performance to break into the final leg of qualifying before grabbing a career-high eight spot on the grid.

The Brazilian driver managed to outqualify fellow F1 rookie Kimi Antonelli and also ended up just two tenths slower than four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen, who was eighth-fastest.

Bortoleto is one of the only three drivers to fail to score a point this year, but feels Austria could be the turning point in his campaign, having had the confidence to perform right from the first session on Friday.

“I feel like the track is very special for me,” said Bortoleto, who scored his maiden F2 win at the Red Bull Ring a year ago.

“I'm getting more and more experienced with the car and the team and the series. It's just the beginning. It's not even half of this season for me. 

“I've been working very hard and understanding what I need from my side, from the car, and I feel like I'm getting more and more comfortable with it and that I know what I need before even the weekend starts. 

“I feel like it's the first weekend that I'm that comfortable since FP1. It feels like things are clicking for me and I'm going in the right direction.”

Sauber introduced an updated floor design to Spielberg, coupled with a new high-downforce rear wing, for added performance.

While the new package played its role in qualifying, Bortoleto believes his result was more down to the experience he had gained in the opening 10 rounds of the season.

“I feel like I'm getting more confident with the car,” he said. “Not only from the upgrades, but also myself and [the] understanding. 

“At the beginning of the season, when you jump in the car, it's basically a different feeling. It's like every single FP1, you don't know how the car is going to behave, but then when you get used to the car more and more, you start putting it in the limits earlier in the weekend and you work more on yourself on the driving, on the set up, and I feel like we have been going in this direction this week.

Looking ahead to Sunday, Bortoleto said he won’t be too careful at the start of the race, but won’t indulge in unnecessary battles with faster cars.

“It [the grid position] doesn't change so much. My approach for the start, I'm going to try to do the best start possible [and] gain some positions.

“If I cannot gain, I'm going to try to keep there and try to make the best race pace I can to score points tomorrow.”

He added: “Obviously it makes no sense in fighting with people you cannot stay ahead of. But for sure I'm a racer, I'm going to try to gain the positions early in the race and see what happens.

“But I'm not going to be focusing on overtaking people that I know that probably have better pace than me like Verstappen because it will probably just destroy your tyres. Just focusing on people we actually [are competing against].”