Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto has been stripped of his FIA Formula 2 podium in Saturday’s Sprint after incurring a five-second time penalty.
Bortoleto, a member of McLaren’s Driver Development Programme, was engaged in a race-long fight with Invicta team-mate Kush Maini.
The duo’s wheel-to-wheel exchanges were not befitting of two team-mates and the battle came to a head on the final lap and the race stewards deemed Bortoleto left the track and gained an advantage at Turn 16.
The resulting five-second penalty dropped the Brazillian from third to fourth with Maini inheriting the final podium spot.
Speaking during Saturday’s Formula 2 Sprint press conference, Bortoleto didn’t take kindly to Maini’s driving tactics throughout the 21-lap race, including their final contest on the start/finish straight.
“During this entire season I have been much more fair with him than he was with me actually,” Bortoleto said.
“I have always been avoiding crashes, even if it was my fault in Barcelona, immediately I apologised to him.
“I had some issues with my brakes and both my mirrors weren’t intact. At least when I did a mistake, I went to him and said sorry.
“In this situation, we thought we had agreed in everything between the team and between us.
“Obviously we are going to have a discussion now. I haven’t gone back to the team yet but hopefully we can understand everything and put things into place so we can flight cleanly like I do with all the other drivers and they do with me as well.
“I don’t know why teammates need to be dirty to each other.”
