Gabriel Bortoleto wasn’t too pleased after Andrea Kimi Antonelli escaped penalty in F1 Monaco GP, as the Italian noted of no touch between them.
It was a dream start for Sauber’s Bortoleto in F1 Monaco GP after he made up few places which included a move on Mercedes’ Antonelli on the outside in the hairpin. But he joy was only for a moment since the Italian came back on him at the right-hander in the lead-up to the tunnel.
It surprised Bortoleto and nowhere to go, he hit the barrier. Fortunately, he managed to get out of it to continue, but his race was more or less done as he was forced to pit to change the front wing. Antonelli was cleared of any wrongdoing, which didn’t sit well with the Brazilian during the race.
He was livid on the radio, noting that Antonelli pushed him off. He added: “F**k it. Antonelli, man! Desperated kid.” A little later in the grand prix when Bortoleto asked if the Italian was handed a penalty, upon getting a no in response, the Sauber driver didn’t hide his feelings.
“OK. I will put him in the wall next time,” he said. Post-race, his emotions was not as high when in the car. He said he didn’t expect Antonelli to divebomb in that manner and he had nowhere to go. “We overtook him into [Turn] 6 and then he tried a divebomb move in T8, where we saw, in the past, there was a lot of accidents already there,” said Bortoleto to media.
“And then obviously when you divebomb, you commit for something. I was already committed to the corner as well, because I would never expect someone to divebomb there. I ended up trying to still stay on track and expecting that he would give me a bit of room, but he didn’t give any room at all. And I just ended up hitting the wall to not hit him in the inside.
“I would [have] end up in the wall anyway. A shame because we broke the front wing and then we lost that advantage of five positions we had at the beginning of the race,” summed up Bortoleto. The Italian agreed that it was an aggressive move, but stated that they didn’t touch eventually.
He was caught by surprise at the hairpin and for the strategy to work, he didn’t want to fall behind teammate George Russell. “It was an aggressive move but at the end of the day I didn’t touch him,” said Antonelli to media. “Also at the apex, I was ahead. You don’t want to see him in the wall, and my intention was not to put him in the wall.
“At the end of the day, I didn’t touch him, and I tried my best to give him as much space as possible. But of course Monaco is very tight, and it can happen. Of course, I didn’t want to lose the position to him because the goal was trying to stay there with George, especially for our strategy. And then I tried to overtake back, but I didn’t think there was anything outstanding [about it].
“I really looked at the onboard and I didn’t touch him or anything, so there was nothing outstanding or dirty on that side. It was of course an aggressive move. As I said before, my intention was not for him [to be in the wall], it was just to overtake. Of course, it’s not nice to see someone in the wall, but at the same time it’s not like Miami that I got touched. Here, I completely didn’t touch him.”
Bortoleto’s mentor Fernando Alonso did not have a good end either in his Aston Martin. The Spaniard was running well in points and should have finished in it, but for a ERS issue which grew as the race progressed. Eventually, he had to retire as he couldn’t have driven to the chequered flag with it.
“I had a problem with the engine since Lap 15 , I didn’t have the ERS system, the electrical part,” said Alonso to media. “So I think I was like Daniel Ricciardo in 2017 with no electrical part. So I had 160 horsepower less. But, here in Monaco, power was not crucial, so I kept the laptime reasonable, and I think I was dreaming of keeping the P6 at the end, maybe, but it was not possible.
“But yeah, the race was good in my case. Qualifying was very good yesterday, so we lost an opportunity. When you don’t have the proper power and everything seems to be on the wrong foot again. On the race start, it was bad, but today is not bad luck.
“It’s not something that came from the sky and hit our car. We were our own Safety Car, our engine was not well prepared for the race, and we could not finish. So let’s try to investigate that and make sure that it’s not happening in the next race.”
Here’s the clash: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-monaco-grand-prix-bortoleto-crashes-on-lap-1-in-tussle-with-antonelli.1833100940504091288
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