2026 Spanish Grand Prix - Sunday

On a track on which overtakes proved nigh-impossible, it was teamwork, strategy and superbly executed pit stops that helped Nico jump his rivals over the 57-lap race and claim the final points-paying position. On the other side of the garage, Gabriel Bortoleto ran a strong race, going long on his starting hard tyre in the hope of making strategic gains later: with no late Safety Cars or red flags, however, he could not materialise his gains and finished his race in 13th place.

The point gained brings the team’s total to 17 – only four shy of Haas in seventh place in the championship.

Earlier in the day, Audi Driver Development Programme’s Freddie Slater brought his Formula 3 season to a close: following a run of eight podiums in eight rounds, the Brit narrowly missed on an outstanding rookie season championship. Despite the disappointment, the racecraft, speed and maturity displayed in his maiden season placed him as one of the standout performers of the year across all junior formulas.

Allan McNish, Racing Director: “Overall, we’re happy to have gained a point. It was always going to be a difficult race from a strategy point of view, with overtaking being very difficult and it looking strongly like a one-stop race. We dropped positions again at the start, which is an area we know is one of our weaknesses, but from there I was very pleased with how we worked as a team.

“We played a real team game today. Nico switched from the soft onto the hard tyre, while we ran an alternative strategy with Gabi which covered pretty much every scenario. Gabi did a great job to run very long on the hard, with the hope that a Safety Car, Virtual Safety Car or red flag later in the race could give him a significant tyre advantage, or a free stop, and propel him back into the points. On the other side, Nico was very strong on both the soft and the hard and came very close to getting ahead of Lindblad at the end.

“Ultimately, I have to say the point today was delivered by the team in the pits. Nico came in behind Ocon and went out ahead of him after a fantastically quick stop, and the team repeated that performance when Gabi came in. It was a very good team effort, strategically, in the pits and from both drivers. It’s another point for us, and now we look forward to Baku.”

Nico Hulkenberg (Car 27):
Race result: 10th
Fastest lap: 1:38.114 (Lap 50)
Strategy & Pit Stops: Start (New Soft) - Lap 14 (New Hard)

"We got the maximum out of what we had today. Starting on the soft tyre meant the early Virtual Safety Car was the right window for us to pit, and the pit crew did a fantastic job to get me ahead of Esteban [Ocon]. That was probably the key moment of our race because it gave us the track position we needed. From there, it was all about managing the tyres. Overtaking was very difficult with everyone running at a similar pace, so there wasn't much room to make further progress. We've been towards the top of this midfield fight for a while now, hopefully we will soon make the extra step we need to keep moving forward." 

Gabriel Bortoleto (Car 5)
Race result: 13th
Fastest lap: 1:37.837 (Lap 50)
Strategy & Pit Stops: Start (New Hard) - Lap 47 (New Soft)

“We got unlucky with the Virtual Safety Car today, which pretty much messed up with our plans, and after that nothing else happened until the end of the race - not much more we could have done from there, especially as chances to overtake were slim.

“Overall, it's been a weekend of learnings. It wasn’t the best, but it was not all that bad either, and I have quite enjoyed racing around here. In qualifying, we were close to making it into Q3 again, and that was more or less where our pace has been all weekend. Now, a week to recharge and get back to work before we head to Baku in two weeks.”