Gabriel Bortoleto 'will miss qualifying' after massive crash

Sauber F1 star and home hero Gabriel Bortoleto suffered a huge crash at the end of the Brazilian Grand Prix sprint race, which will prevent him from taking part in qualifying.

As the rookie started the final lap of the race, he attempted to pass Alex Albon, but suffered a huge amount of oversteer that saw him slam into the barrier on the left hand side of the start/finish straight.

That contact then sent his car spiralling across the track at high speed into the barriers on the other side of the track opposite turn one, and his car actually left the ground during the crash.

Thankfully, Bortoleto told his team over the radio that he was 'ok', and was taken by the on-track medical team, while the race finished under double-waved yellow flags.

His Sauber team then faced a huge uphill battle to get his destroyed car ready for qualifying later on Saturday, and Sky Sports F1 pundit Ted Kravitz revealed in his sprint Notebook show that Sauber had not managed to get his car ready, and Bortoleto would not be able to take part in grand prix qualifying.

Kravitz said: "I can tell you now that he will not be taking part. We understand that he will not be able to take part in qualifying because we believe at present, and we will confirm this in our pre-qualifying programme, that it necessitates a chassis change and when you have a chassis change, you can’t scrutineer a new chassis on the same day.

"You have to do it the following day to avoid teams trying to take unnecessary risks in building up a new chassis very quickly on the same day."

Bortoleto suffers huge crash

Bortoleto is the first Brazilian that the crowd have had to cheer on at Interlagos since Felipe Massa at the 2017 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Following some solid points-scoring outings in recent weekends, there is real hope that Bortoleto can do something similar at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, with Sauber chasing down a sixth-place finish in the constructors' championship.

Bortoleto's crash will be even more frustrating to him and his team because his fight with Albon and Isack Hadjar behind was only for 10th place, with only the top eight scoring points anyway in the sprint race.

The 21-year-old rookie will not take part in qualifying, and therefore will start from the very back of the grid for Sunday's main race, when there are a lot more points on offer.

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