Gabriel Bortoleto narrowly missed the points at the Italian Grand Prix, finishing 11th for Audi directly behind Yuki Tsunoda, but the final outcome could yet change. Audi has challenged the decision not to penalise the Racing Bulls driver following an incident before the restart at Monza, potentially opening the door for Gabriel Bortoleto to inherit 10th place and the final championship point.
For the second consecutive race after Zandvoort, Audi missed an opportunity to make greater progress towards Haas in the Constructors’ Championship, with neither Haas driver reaching the points at Monza. The German manufacturer also finished immediately outside the top 10, with Gabriel Bortoleto 11th and Nico Hülkenberg 12th, although that classification could still change.
Why Gabriel Bortoleto could still score a point at Monza
Yuki Tsunoda was the driver who secured 10th place, but the Racing Bulls substitute made an error when positioning his car on the grid at the end of the formation lap following the red flag caused by Charles Leclerc’s accident. Race Control allowed the field to complete another formation lap and Yuki Tsunoda was not penalised.
Audi was far from satisfied with that decision and lodged an appeal. As a result, Yuki Tsunoda’s current 10th-place finish remains under scrutiny, with Gabriel Bortoleto next in line should the classification eventually change.
The difference between 10th and 11th could also matter in the wider 2026 Formula 1 championship, particularly for an Audi team trying to close its deficit to Haas in the midfield battle.
Gabriel Bortoleto: ‘I gave everything I had’
While awaiting a ruling on the matter, Gabriel Bortoleto reflected on a race in which an early loss of positions left him fighting from behind.
“I think I gave everything I had,” the Brazilian explained. “The start definitely didn’t make things easy for us and, once you lose positions on the opening lap, it’s always difficult to recover. We pushed hard and probably used the tyres a little too much, but that’s part of trying to fight back.”
Gabriel Bortoleto found Racing Bulls particularly difficult to match at Monza, where straight-line performance played a major role around Formula 1’s Temple of Speed.
“The Racing Bulls were quite strong today, especially on the straights, and keeping up with them was more difficult than expected. Nevertheless, the team gave me a car capable of fighting much closer to the points than we expected, and we’ll continue working on that ahead of next week’s race in Madrid, where hopefully we’ll have more opportunities.”
Nico Hülkenberg admits Monza was always expected to be difficult for Audi
It was ultimately a complicated weekend for Audi, something Nico Hülkenberg also acknowledged after crossing the line directly behind his team-mate in 12th place.
“Overall, we knew this was always going to be one of the more difficult weekends for us given the characteristics of the circuit, so considering that, it wasn’t a bad day,” Nico Hülkenberg said. “The second start was much better and I managed to gain a few positions on the opening lap, but unfortunately I lost them again shortly afterwards.”
The German driver believes Audi now needs to study what happened during that phase before turning its attention towards the next race.
“We’ll need to review exactly what happened and understand whether we could have done anything differently. From then on, the race was fairly straightforward. Today we extracted the best from the package and that’s more or less our assessment of the weekend. We’ll take a break, analyse everything and focus on Madrid.”
Audi turns its attention to the Madrid Grand Prix
With Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hülkenberg both finishing just outside the points, Monza ultimately produced less reward than Audi had hoped for despite the car proving more competitive than expected. The team will now turn its attention to the new Madrid circuit, the next event on the 2026 Formula 1 calendar, while also awaiting the outcome of its challenge concerning Yuki Tsunoda.
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