Max Verstappen 'helped rival' at Austrian GP as Red Bull ace explains classy move
Max Verstappen went out of his way to help a rival during qualifying.
Max Verstappen revealed that he went out of his way to help rookie Gabriel Bortoleto during qualifying at the Austrian Grand Prix. The Red Bull racer was forced to abort his final Q3 lap and reacted by giving the Sauber starlet a big tow down the start-finish straight. Bortoleto has endured a difficult rookie season to date and heads into the Austrian GP still searching for his first F1 points. Much of this is due to Sauber's struggles in terms of performance.
The Hinwil squad have been at the bottom end of the pecking order for a couple of years and nearly went the entire 2024 season pointless before Zhou Guanyu's Qatar heroics spared their blushes. However, the Brazilian's frustrations could now end on Sunday. Bortoleto finished eighth in Q3 on Saturday, beating out both Kimi Antonelli and Pierre Gasly. He was consistently fast throughout the first two parts of qualifying, too, capping off a day to remember for Sauber's young hotshot.
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Bortoleto's excellent Q3 lap was bolstered by some help from a friend and rival. Verstappen, whose final run was ruined by Gasly's sector three spin, gave the 20-year-old some assistance.
"My lap was already ruined, I saw him behind me, and he has had a really good weekend, so I thought, let me help him a bit," the four-time world champion told Viaplay after stepping out of the cockpit at the Red Bull Ring.
Bortoleto also addressed the slipstream benefit he enjoyed and revealed that he attempted to return the favour. ''Max always gives me tows," he explained. "He's the best! He's always super kind. I tried to give him a tow as well from T8 to T9, but then there was a yellow flag - but I tried my best, I even took the charge off the car to boost the engine!''
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While Verstappen's classy move helped give Bortoleto something to celebrate, there were few positives for the reigning world champion to take home from his Saturday. He will line up alongside the rookie on the fourth row of the grid after ending Q3 seventh on the timing screen.
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The Dutchman struggled with the balance of his RB21 throughout all three qualifying sessions and never threatened title rivals Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. The latter stormed to the biggest pole margin of the campaign so far to bounce back from a disastrous Canadian Grand Prix in style.
Verstappen is 43 points behind championship leader Piastri ahead of Sunday's lights out and will now face an afternoon of damage limitation on Red Bull's home turf. Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and Liam Lawson will all start between the Dutchman and the lead McLaren.
