{"id":115149,"date":"2025-05-19T19:43:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T19:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/115149\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T19:43:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T19:43:08","slug":"driver-gets-fed-over-at-imola-gp-by-esteban-ocon-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/115149\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver gets ‘f***ed’ over at Imola GP by Esteban Ocon incident"},"content":{"rendered":"

The only driver to do a three-stopper at Imola, Gabriel Bortoleto learned a harsh lesson in Formula 1\u2019s game of strategy and chance as he got \u201cf**ked\u201d by the VSC on Sunday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It what is proving to be a difficult first season in Formula 1, Bortoleto\u2019s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix wasn\u2019t any different as he lined up 14th on the grid but lost positions in the race.<\/p>\n

Gabriel Bortoleto came off on the wrong side of a VSC<\/p>\n

Running in the back half of the field, the Sauber<\/a> rookie was one the first in that battle to pit, hoping to use the undercut to make up positions.<\/p>\n

But instead, it cost him positions as a Virtual Safety Car for Esteban Ocon\u2019s stricken Haas on lap 29 gave the drivers intent on a one-stop strategy a cheap pit stop.<\/p>\n

Bortoleto also pitted as he was now up against drivers on fresh tyres, but last in, he was also last out.<\/p>\n

That saw Sauber throw the dice, pitting him for a third time when the Safety Car came out on lap 46 when Kimi Antonelli stopped on the side of the track.<\/p>\n

But as Race Control took six laps to clear Antonelli\u2019s car and allow a lapped backmarker, Oliver Bearman, to rejoin at the back of the field, Bortoleto\u2019s opportunities lessened with each lap. He even lost out to Bearman after the restart.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got f***ed with the Virtual Safety Car,\u201d he told the media, including PlanetF1.com. \u201cNo swearing, sorry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I think we got a bit unlucky with the Virtual Safety Car at the beginning. We went completely the opposite of our strategy, and then we tried the three-stop.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to check why we did that and understand because we lost a lot of time there.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, the pace on the hards was okay, it was good. Just a shame that we could not show that in the results.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 Emilia Romagna GP driver ratings: A drop for Piastri with Verstappen perfect<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 Imola GP conclusions: Verstappen\u2019s Piastri lesson, McLaren\u2019s fear, Tsunoda\u2019s wobble<\/a><\/p>\n

Alas, he accepts teams cannot predict when there will be a Safety Car or when Race Control will give Bernd Mayl\u00e4nder the instruction to return to the pits. The teams only get a short warning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know why they took so long,\u201d he said of the full Safety Car period. \u201cMaybe because the car was still on track, and I think you see the safety. But again, I need to review.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot predict when a Safety Car is coming in or not. So I think we took what we had to take, and what we discussed before the race, and it was just not the right moment at the right time.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut yes, it\u2019s easy now to say that maybe if I started on the hards, I would be on the points and happy days, but it was not the case. So we started on medium, we got the first bit of Safety Car, and then we tried a third stop that maybe didn\u2019t work as we expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result meant Bortoleto is one of five drivers yet to get off the mark this season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But there is a glimmer of hope as he believes Sauber showed good pace at Imola, it was just bad timing that hurt them.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I need to check, I don\u2019t know,\u201d he said when asked about his race pace. \u201cI don\u2019t have a time of the other drivers to compare, but the cars that were ahead of me, Gasly and Lawson. For a big part of the race I was following them and not losing anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it looks like we were strong. They also got a bit on the wrong side of the Virtual Safety Car because Gasly was on the same strategy as me, and he was starting quite ahead, and then he finished in the back as well. So I think so but it doesn\u2019t change the fact that we finish where we finished.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read next: Missed McLaren chance? Data sheds further light on Imola strategy<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The only driver to do a three-stopper at Imola, Gabriel Bortoleto learned a harsh lesson in Formula 1\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,225,12,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-115149","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-home-page","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114536212244670370","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}