The Brazilian scored the team's first points since Australia after three consecutive 11th place finishes. Hülkenberg retired due to gearbox issues, Audi has improved its pace but reliability remains a handicap.
Gabriel Bortoleto scored Audi's first points since Australia at the British Grand Prix. The Brazilian converted his eleventh position on the grid into an eighth place finish on Sunday, breaking a streak of three consecutive races in which he had finished eleventh: "The team deserves it, we've been through several races without points, it was tough for the whole team to see that the pace is there, the potential is there, but for one reason or another we can't capitalize on it. Today we showed why we are here and our true pace" declared Bortoleto at the time.
The Brazilian driver, who has been eleventh more times than his teammate Nico Hülkenberg this season, stayed focused in a race full of incidents and managed to stay out of trouble to cross the line in eighth position, his best result of the season: "We are currently on circuits like this a bit behind Racing Bulls with many straights, but realistically it was a good position to finish eighth" explained Bortoleto.
The Silverstone race was especially significant for Audi because it showed that the team has the pace to fight for points when reliability is on their side. Bortoleto had to overcome problems in qualifying, where he could only get out on track at the end of Q1, and managed to stay out of trouble in the race: "We almost got left out after Q1, which could have been if we hadn't done qualifying. They managed to get the car on track and do a good qualifying and a good performance" recalled the Brazilian.
Hülkenberg, for his part, had a weekend to forget. The German retired due to gearbox problems and added his fourth retirement of the season: "It ended in a frustrating way for us today, from the start things didn't go as we expected, something already felt wrong on the formation laps, and the start wasn't right. In the race, I had to push at the beginning in dirty air and had a small spin that made tire management difficult, and then we had a gearbox problem that forced us to retire," explained the German.
Audi improved its pace in recent races but reliability remains a problem that hurts its performance. The German team is eighth in the constructors' championship with 20 points, five behind Williams and 15 behind Haas.
Bortoleto trusts that the team can continue to progress and score points more regularly in the second half of the season. The Brazilian hopes that the team can resolve the reliability problems that have affected Hülkenberg in several races.
