In the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, a difference in strategy led to a tense moment on track between Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto. At one point, the Brazilian driver was defending against Liam Lawson when Alonso appeared unexpectedly at Turn 1.
Lawson managed to pass Bortoleto, but as the Brazilian tried to reassert himself at the exit of Turn 1, Alonso surprised him by appearing on the outside. Bortoleto didn’t initially spot the Aston Martin, as Alonso had hidden behind Lawson before making his move.
After the race, both drivers laughed off the incident. “I was surprised, I nearly crashed, which is the last thing you want, but he didn’t see me,” Alonso said. “I had to avoid the corner and quickly gave the position back because I didn’t want to be penalised. It didn’t affect the race much; we were both struggling. We’re flying home together now – maybe no dinner for him,” he joked.
Bortoleto explained his side: “I tried to make him a bit scared. I didn’t see him because I thought there was only one car behind me. As soon as the car passed, I opened the corner, and Fernando was there. I felt a big hit on the side of my car, and I saw Fernando and thought, ‘hello.’ Luckily, there was no damage or incident.”
On the race itself, neither driver managed to break into the top 10. Alonso came closest, finishing 12th but moving up to 11th after Lawson received a penalty. The Spaniard admitted that Aston Martin lacked the pace to compete for points. “We are in a different race compared to the top teams,” he said. “We just stayed in the DRS train early on. We had a good strategy, and with Liam’s penalty, we capitalised on others’ mistakes, like Yuki and Gasly on Lap 1. Without that, I would’ve probably finished P13, not P11. We just take what we can get.”
Bortoleto, on the other hand, was too far off the points to make any significant moves. “I didn’t have much choice after missing FP2 and the tyre selection issues in qualifying,” he explained. “I only had one set of new hard tyres, one set of new mediums, and a lot of softs left. But putting on softs wasn’t useful; they would last just five laps. I started on mediums, then switched to hard tyres after the safety car, but by the end of the race, my tyres were completely worn. I had so much vibration, and I think if I had five more laps, they would’ve blown up.”
