'Very happy for the team' – Bortoleto reflects on 'great result' in Mexico City Grand Prix

Gabriel Bortoleto bagged another point during his rookie season after a solid drive in Mexico.

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - OCTOBER 26: Tenth placed Gabriel Bortoleto of Brazil and Stake F1 Team Kick

Gabriel Bortoleto believes scooping up the final point in the Mexico City Grand Prix was "definitely a great result", the Kick Sauber driver having climbed up from 16th on the grid.

The Brazilian had to fight for 10th place in Sunday's race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, which included several overtakes, notably on Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar into Turn 1 for the crucial final point on offer.

"This was a good race I think," said Bortoleto, who scored his first point since the Italian Grand Prix weekend.

"[It was a] very solid start from P16. Did a good start, overtaking a couple of cars and then on track managed to overtake Isack [Hadjar], Carlos [Sainz], Yuki [Tsunoda], so that was great. Definitely a great result and very happy for the team and me for the solid one point.

"It was a great move [on Hadjar], I think I needed to try. I tried so many times and it didn't work, so I said 'now, whatever happens it happens but I need to make this move happen'. It worked out very well, he fought very well trying to overtake back."

In contrast, team mate Nico Hulkenberg was unable to follow up on his eighth place in the US Grand Prix after suffering a power issue early in proceedings, which ultimately caused his retirement as early as Lap 25.

"That kind of ended our race before it had really started," said Hulkenberg, with Sauber having slipped behind Haas in the Teams' Championship.

"Obviously disappointing for us, for everyone in the team, I feel we definitely would have had some decent race pace and would have been able to fight for something but that prevented it today.

"At least he [Bortoleto] scored one point which is obviously better than nothing, but tough weekend overall. Yesterday was a bit difficult as well but today, obviously, to end the race like this is a bitter pill."

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