They already know each other very well from Formula 2, but in their rookie year in the premier class they have not yet had so much to do with each other: While Kimi Antonelli has always been running for points with Mercedes, Gabriel Bortoleto struggled with the cleanly at the end of the field.
In Monaco, however, the signs of the Italian’s crash changed in qualifying and the resulting 15th place, just one position in front of Bortoleto: In retrospect, good for the audience, because the two youngsters provided plenty of action in an otherwise rather tense Grand Prix!
First of all, Bortoleto overtook his two-year-old competitor outside in the Loews hair needle, a rare and strong maneuver. However, Antonelli apparently did not want to be demonstrated in such a way and only started two curves later in porters into a tough counterattack – which ended in the gang for the evasive Brazilian.
Antonelli: “Was an aggressive maneuver, but …”
“I think it was an aggressive maneuver, but at the end of the day I didn’t touch him,” Antonelli sees the curve very clearly as his: “At the apex of the curve. Of course you don’t want to see anyone in the wall, that was by no means my intention. But as I said, there was no contact, and I tried to leave him as much space as possible.”
However, the Mercedes -Rookie is not surprised by the outcome: “Monaco is extremely narrow, such situations can happen,” he explains – with a view to his hard -scale, Antonelli adds: “Of course I did not want to lose the position, because my goal was to stay at George Drasch – especially because of our strategy. So I tried to reject immediately.”
However, as part of the permitted, as Antonelli justifies: “I don’t think that there was something special or dirty. I also looked at the onboard recordings again, there was no contact. Yes, it was an aggressive maneuver, but as I said, my goal was easy to overtake.”
Own team boss contradicts angered bortoleto
Bortoleto naturally sees things a little differently: “I overtook it in curve six, and then he tried a” divebomb “maneuver in curve, where accidents have often occurred in the past. If you start such a” divebomb “, you have to fully engage in it.”
The clean pilot describes from its perspective: “I myself was already fully in the curve because I would never have expected an attack at this point. I still tried to fall by the wayside and hoped that it leaves me a little space – but he didn’t leave me at all,” complains the newcomer.
“So I ended in the wall because I had to dodge so as not to hit it inside. In the end, I would have ended up in the wall either way,” Bortoleto criticizes his hopelessness in the situation. Alone: Even his own team boss sees things a little different after the end of the race: “I was always a fan of good, clean and hard racing – and I think that’s it,” reveals Sauber Jonathan Wheatley.
In the opinion of the slow-motion pictures, ex-racing drivers and servusTV expert Philipp is clearly on Antonelli’s side: “Kimi did not let it sit long again, then put his nose in again. There was no touch,” says the Austrian: “In my view, a sparkling clean maneuver by Kimi Antonelli.”
After all, luck for duel losers Bortoleto: Despite the accident, he can then continue his first Grand Prix in Monaco: “The impact was not very strong, so I knew that it was probably only the front wing. I then reset and continued,” the clean pilot describes his chaotic first round.
“Too bad, because if you make a pit stop here and have 20 seconds behind, it went practically,” says Bortoleto, who ends his Monaco premiere as 14th. But Antonelli also does not really get on the move after the sensitive scene, is stuck in the traffic jam: “We tried to achieve something with our strategy, but unfortunately that didn’t work,” his conclusion after 17th place in the end is rather sobering.