Audi: No points in Austria either, but still quite satisfied

Just missing out on the points and still coming away empty-handed: with 11th (Gabriel Bortoleto) and 12th (Nico Hülkenberg), Audi narrowly missed out on the points at the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg.

Hülkenberg said after the Grand Prix: “It was a difficult race to fight our way through to the front. We tried to gain an advantage by doing a longer first stint, but given the heavy traffic and the number of cars overtaking us, it didn’t quite go as we’d hoped. Looking back, an earlier pit stop might have opened up a few more opportunities, but that’s easy to say with the benefit of hindsight.”

Praise for race pace

The German said: “On a positive note, our race pace was quite good. We were able to keep up with the cars around us and were even slightly faster at times, but as we started further back, it was difficult to turn that into a result. We’ll take the lessons learnt with us to Silverstone. It’s a completely different circuit, one I always enjoy, and hopefully we can secure a better position next weekend.”

Gabriel Bortoleto at least managed to gain a position for Hülki: “I think we gave it our best today. I overtook the Alpine in front of me, and we had a really decent pace for most of the race, but I just didn’t make it into the points because the Racing Bulls were simply faster than us this weekend. It was also a very clean race, so unlike in recent races, there were no chaotic situations or retirements ahead of me that I could have capitalised on.” Apart from two VSC periods, the Austrian Grand Prix was uneventful.

Making the most of it

Bortoleto: “Overall, we made the most of our opportunities this weekend. Our pace in qualifying was good, and the package we brought here worked as expected. We just need to close the gap a little on those ahead of us, and we’ll do our best to achieve that – starting with Silverstone.” The race there takes place this coming weekend.

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