Audi Suffer Shock Double Q1 Knockout in Baku as Bortoleto Baffled by Mysterious Lack of Grip

Audi's Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend took a dramatic turn for the worse during Qualifying as both Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg were eliminated in Q1, leaving the rookie Brazilian driver baffled by an unexplained lack of pace and grip despite a major aerodynamic upgrade package.

The Hinwil-based squad arrived in Baku having regularly reached the top 10 in Qualifying across the season, bringing significant aerodynamic updates to the R26. However, the session proved to be a rude awakening, with Bortoleto qualifying P17 and veteran teammate Hulkenberg ending up in P18.

Bortoleto: 'It's Something Bigger That We Need to Understand'

Bortoleto appeared visibly shell-shocked following the early exit, struggling to pinpoint why the car felt so uncompetitive across the weekend compared to recent high-speed outings like Monza.

“I think there are many things,” Bortoleto explained. “It's not only power units. I think we lacked grip the whole weekend, and yeah, it just wasn't a great day for us. I think it was not ideal.

“Honestly, I think the whole weekend we have been struggling with pace, grip, straight line [speed], but still there were tracks like Monza where we were almost in Q3, and there are more straights than here. So I think it's something bigger that we need to understand.”

The Brazilian rookie noted that while the new parts seemed to deliver the anticipated aerodynamic numbers, the car could not translate downforce into lap times around the Baku City Circuit.

“For both of us, the whole weekend we had no grip. If you don't have grip, you cannot go fast in the corners. If you don't go fast, you don't make a lap time. It's simple as that,” he said. “I feel like we added downforce with the new upgrade – but it's so weird. I don't know what's going on. Honestly, I felt like the upgrade worked, but I don't know if other teams also brought something interesting, or if it's the straight line.”

Hulkenberg Highlights Costly Yellow Flags and Missed Tow

On the other side of the garage, Nico Hulkenberg attributed his early elimination primarily to unfortunate timing and challenging circumstances rather than fundamental flaws in the updated package.

“It's mostly because of circumstances,” Hulkenberg said. “Yellow flag in Turn 15, then the cars in front of me aborted their run, so no tow from 16 to the line, which is pretty penalising around here. So that combination killed us today, and meant that we're out.”

Despite the setback, the German driver remained confident that the upgrade package will prove its worth in the rounds ahead.

“Absolutely,” Hulkenberg added. “I'm confident we will understand it better in weeks to come, and optimise it, extract more out of it. It did feel quite encouraging and decent yesterday from the get-go, so I have no concerns or question marks around it. I think it's definitely better, but I think there is still more to learn and extract from it.”