Fernando Alonso showed great pride in his protégé, Gabriel Bortoleto, after the Sauber driver recorded a heroic P6 finish at the Hungarian GP. The two-time champion took a dig at the purported British bias in F1 to emphasize how Bortoleto would’ve been the man of the moment if he were an English driver.
Bortoleto started the Hungarian GP in an unexpectedly high seventh place, qualifying better than reigning champion Max Verstappen. The Brazilian rookie was the better Sauber driver this weekend, with teammate Nico Hulkenberg qualifying in P19.
In the 70-lap race on Sunday, Gabriel Bortoleto was on the less-preferred, but race-winning one-stop strategy. He managed his tires to perfection to finish P6, and F1 fans voted him Driver of the Day.
Fernando Alonso, who had a season-best performance as well, spoke highly of Bortoleto, who is signed to his A14 Management company. The Aston Martin driver claimed that the Sauber driver was highly underappreciated because of the F1 media’s British bias.
“He is the best rookie of this generation. If he were English or something like that and finished sixth with a Sauber, he would be on the front page of every newspaper,” Alonso said via DAZN Espana on X.
Fernando Alonso had called out the supposed British bias a few years ago when Max Verstappen was in the title fight against Lewis Hamilton. While sympathizing with the Dutchman after the infamous 2021 British GP accident, the Spaniard claimed that the media often also painted him as the “bad guy” back in the day when he was battling British rivals.
Fernando Alonso takes a cheeky dig at Gabriel Bortoleto in the Hungarian GP media pen
Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin had their best F1 weekend of the year at the Hungaroring. The AMR25 was blazing fast on the 14-turn, 2.722-mile circuit, with the two-time champion momentarily in the fight for pole position in qualifying.
Alonso started the race in P5 with teammate Lance Stroll beside him on Row 3. He finished in the status quo to secure his best result of the season, while Gabriel Bortoleto gained a position to split the two Aston Martins.
In his post-race interview with Lawrence Barretto of F1TV, the two-time F1 champion happily spoke about his positive weekend. He said:
“Yeah, definitely happy. P5, the best result of the year. The best result as a team, you know, 16 points (10 for Alonso plus 6 for Stroll) before the summer break is… feels good.”
At that moment, the 44-year-old noticed Bortoleto walking right behind him and emphasized some words in the following statement, adding:
“We were a lot faster than the Sauber.”
The duo shared a light-hearted moment as Barretto laughed at the moment as well. Lando Norris won the Hungarian GP to lead a McLaren 1-2. George Russell finished on the podium by outclassing pole-sitter Charles Leclerc for P3 on lap 62 of 70.
F1 will slumber for the next four weeks before returning to Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix from August 29 to 31.
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Yash is a Motorsports journalist at Sportskeeda with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from one of India’s top B-schools. With over 1.5 years of experience covering Formula 1 and a short stint covering the WNBA, he brings passionate authenticity to his writing.
Yash’s first brush with the motorsport world was accidental. While flipping TV channels, he came across an episode of F1TV’s ‘Inside Tracks’. That was enough to engross him and make him dive head-first into devotedly following the sport.
Surprisingly, he favors no particular driver or team. This helps him bring complete objectivity to his reporting, which begins with meticulous research from trusted sources across the internet.
When motorsport isn’t on Yash’s mind, he’s either at the gym, out for a walk, or indulging in creative writing.
Edited by Tushar Bahl
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