{"id":29398,"date":"2026-07-19T08:49:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T08:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/29398\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T08:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T08:49:13","slug":"between-q3-and-mechanical-problems-audis-contrasting-qualifications-in-belgium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/29398\/","title":{"rendered":"Between Q3 and mechanical problems, Audi&#8217;s contrasting qualifications in Belgium"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/DPPI_00126013_1833-2.jpg\"   width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" fetchpriority=\"high\" alt=\"Between Q3 and a mechanical problem, Audi's contrasting qualifications in Belgium\"\/><br \/>\n\u00a9 Antonin Vincent \/ DPPI                <\/p>\n<p>    Qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix was a fairly clear summary of Audi&#8217;s start to the Formula 1 season, with pace and mechanical problems.                                            <\/p>\n<p class=\"gt-block wp-block-paragraph\">A car in Q3, the one from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autohebdof1.com\/pilot\/f1\/gabriel-bortoleto\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"115\" title=\"Gabriel Bortoleto\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gabriel Bortoleto<\/a>, another one, that of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autohebdof1.com\/pilot\/f1\/Nico-Hulkenberg\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"105\" title=\"Nico Hulkenberg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nico Hulkenberg<\/a>which was forced to stop at the side of the track at the end of Q2 due to a hydraulic problem. Once again, Audi failed to deliver a perfectly clean performance, despite a pace that puts them in contention for points.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Brazilian driver was all smiles after another Q3 qualification. Gabriel Bortoleto continues to prove that he can perform consistently, and he&#8217;s aiming for points this Sunday against the Racing Bulls, who will be as fast as ever.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gt-block wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m extremely happy. I think we got the most out of what we had, maybe even a little more. So yes, very satisfied. I think we can try to score some points. It won\u2019t be easy. We know the Racing Bulls are a bit ahead of us. I managed to overtake one of them in Q3, but I\u2019m sure the race will be tough against them because they\u2019re fast. But I\u2019m going to give it my all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We made things difficult for ourselves.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Nico H\u00fclkenberg, qualifying was once again marred by a mechanical issue, this time with the hydraulic system. The German driver experienced problems with gear changes from the very beginning of the session, and while he still hopes to recover in the race, it&#8217;s clear that the mechanical issues are starting to affect him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gt-block wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe had gearbox problems. The gear changes weren\u2019t working properly right from the start of qualifying. And then the team told me to stop the car because of a hydraulic issue, I think. Hopefully, we\u2019ll do a bit better on Sunday. We can make up some ground, but well\u2026 it wasn\u2019t a clean qualifying session in Q1 to begin with. We made things difficult for ourselves, and then on top of that, the technical problems. It\u2019s just\u2026 you never know, it just goes from bad to worse, and there\u2019s always something going on on my end.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"cross-article__title\">\n        This article might interest you    <\/p>\n<p>            <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/DPPI_00126013_1413.jpg\"   width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" alt=\"The schedule for Sunday's 2026 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"cross-article__title\">\n        The editorial team offers you    <\/p>\n<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/DPPI_00126013_1381-2.jpg\"   width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" alt=\"The starting grid for the 2026 Belgian F1 Grand Prix\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a9 Antonin Vincent \/ DPPI Qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix was a fairly clear summary of Audi&#8217;s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[14118,7,9868,16256],"class_list":["post-29398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-audi","tag-belgium","tag-f1","tag-grand-prix-de-belgique"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116945784978158321","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}