Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto visited the Aston Martin hospitality unit following the Las Vegas Grand Prix to apologise to Lance Stroll.
Both drivers were forced to retire from the race around the streets of Sin City after a first-lap collision. The Brazilian driver took accountability for the crash and apologised to Stroll following the race.
Bortoleto received praise for the “classy” move. “How good. Classy to apologise and for Lance to be a gentleman about it,” one fan commented, while another added: “Great sportsmanship from both drivers.”
Another commented: “Super classy by Gabi, shows great maturity,” and someone else wrote: “Nice and respectful but now they’re even!”
“First of all, I would like to apologise to Lance,” Bortoleto explained. “It was my fault – I had a strong launch and went for a move on the inside of the Williams, but by the time I committed, I misjudged the braking point by a few metres and it was already too late to slow the car down properly.
“I went in a bit long, had no angle to make the corner, and ended up hitting him. It’s a shame, because the weekend seemed promising until qualifying, and then the mistake on lap one ruined both our races.
Pierre Gasly, Alpine, Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
“I just need to put everything together now for the remaining two races of the season – clean laps, clean weekends – because not finishing these last two races meant losing track experience I should have been gaining. I’ll learn from this, reset, and make sure to come back to the performance levels I’ve shown before as we come to Doha next week.”
Bortoleto was handed a five-place grid penalty for the upcoming Qatar Grand Prix for causing the collision.
With two rounds remaining in the season, Bortoleto sits 19th in the drivers’ standings with 19 points and Stroll sits 16th with 32 points. The two teams are also fighting it out for sixth place against Racing Bulls and Haas. Aston Martin is currently eighth with 72 points and Sauber is ninth with 68 points.
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