Gabriel Bortoleto apologised for F1 Las Vegas GP clash as Lance Stroll accepts and brushes it off, with Nico Hulkenberg adding on points and Fernando Alonso on miss.
After the double retirement in Brazil, Sauber’s Bortoleto faced another setback in F1 Las Vegas GP when the Brazilian retired at Turn 1 of the grand prix. He went for the inside line but realised it too late and out-braked himself to plough straight into Aston Martin’s Stroll.
His move also caught few other drivers to go wide. This was the second race in succession where Bortoleto and Stroll were involved in a first lap incident. In Brazil, the Brazilian was behind the Canadian when he spun around – which was not the fault of the Aston Martin driver.
In the case in Las Vegas, it was Bortoleto who kick-started the melee and was subsequently handed a time penalty converted to 5-place grid drop in this weekend’s Qatar GP. The Brazilian accepted his fault and went to see Stroll twice after the grand prix to apologise for his mistake.
Funnily, Stroll noted that he couldn’t get back to the paddock due to road closure and had to use a golf buggy to return. Bortoleto visited the Aston Martin motorhome again once he return, as the Canadian played down the incident, noting it to be a normal mistake that can happen.
In all likelihood, it would have been tough for Aston Martin to score either way. Teammate Fernando Alonso lost out from Top 10 to finish 11th after double disqualification of McLaren drivers. He was 13th originally behind the Haas pair. He was more concerned about lack of penalty for Lap 1 incident.
He highlighted the moment between Liam Lawson and Oscar Piastri, which caught him out to drop back in the opening lap. He never got the chance of a fightback due to lack of pace unlike Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg, who hovered around the Top 10 and eventually finished ninth originally.
He gained couple more places to be seventh in the end ahead of Lewis Hamilton. He knew he had pace against the Haas F1 pair, but was wary about Hamilton’s fight. However, the Brit didn’t have enough legs on the medium compound to put up any fight and the German had it under control.
Gabriel Bortoleto: “I misjudged the braking point a little bit, by about five metres. If I had braked a bit earlier, I would probably have stopped the car. I’m sorry for Lance; it was my fault. I don’t have much to say – it just ended so early in the race. Shame. It was a bit of floor, I think I was hit on the floor. We preferred to not risk anything, the race was basically over then we were last. We had to change the front wing because it was leaning a bit down. I mean for the crash, it was not a big damage, but it was better to retire the car and not risk anything.
“Well, yeah, I think…I don’t want to be talking too much about the past or the year. I know how great it was, but I need to focus in the future and what I can do better. The past is the past, and I just want to…if I want to remember something of that, I want to get back to that form, doing great qualies, having good starts, clean races, no incidents. I think in the last few rounds I have not been able to do this. And yeah, just feel very bad for that because it’s never good to be ending the year in a struggle, but we still have two races to go to try to make a good result.”
Lance Stroll: “Well, I mean, I don’t know. Gabi didn’t do it on purpose. It happens. At times these cold conditions, you lock up and you lose control of the car, so yeah. It’s not fun for either of us. But I mean, he didn’t do it on purpose. It’s racing. It can happen, these things. I was on the other side of the circuit for, for the last 50 laps or 40 laps. I mean, if he doesn’t, it’s okay. I mean, he’s a good kid and at least he didn’t do it on purpose. It’s cold conditions, and it can happen to, to anybody.
“Yeah, you can’t get back here because it’s all… well, the roads are closed. So, I was trying to get back, and eventually I got on a golf buggy and there was like a military group that escorted me back here. So, it took a while. It took 40 laps, but eventually I managed to find my way back to the paddock. I didn’t have to spend the night over there.”
Nico Hulkenberg: “Yeah. After the first 10, 15 laps, obviously, I saw even the medium runners ahead of me, they’re not really degging off. There was no graining for them, and my tyres were also feeling okay. I think the hard was the best tyre this weekend. Once Fernando pitted, and I think Oli locked up, so I got Oli just before he pitted, I knew we were in good shape to beat these guys at least. Everyone else in front started ahead of us as well, and I think probably slightly faster than us this weekend, so I guess we extracted the best.
“I mean, at the beginning, obviously, on hard, he pitted first, then obviously we kind of covered, and they had a slow stop, so that was helpful in a way. Then, I think on the medium, I don’t know, it looked, it was controllable. And obviously, then I kept finding more and more pace, and he somehow had a bit of a struggle, I think halfway through the second stint, and then dropped off a little bit. So, yeah, it turned out to be pretty straightforward.”
Fernando Alonso: “Yeah, definitely not the pace this weekend, very challenging, all the free practice. Apart from qualifying in wet conditions, we were not fast enough, and we deserved to be out of the points. Also, we were a little bit slow in the top speed, so battling out there, it was very difficult for us. Yeah, we’ll try again next week. No, the start was good, but Liam was on the inside, pushed Piastri, myself, and Leclerc out of the track. So, I don’t know if it has been investigated or not, but the start was definitely not…it has no penalty for Liam, because the basis of stewards’ judgement is that he was forced to go wide because of the lock-up from George.
“It was actually a concertina effect, George breaking, Liam trying to get out of the way while he was hitting Oscar. I don’t know, I didn’t see the replay yet, but that was the cause of…wrong place, wrong moment. Classic. Yeah, I think so. Some action there [against Haas], but apparently the car was performing well. They were reporting that there was not any damage or not any aero performance change. So, yeah, the pace was not that good.”
Here’s race start: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-formula-1-las-vegas-gp-verstappen-seizes-lead-as-norris-runs-wide-in-dramatic-start.1849555190074067783
Here’s Gabriel Bortoleto seeing Lance Stroll: https://x.com/AstonMartinF1/status/1992572639358107697?s=20
Here’s Liam Lawson Lap 1 incident
