RACE ANALYSIS: What made Gabriel Bortoleto’s Monza performance so special

Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto produced one of the most memorable performances of the season in Monza, going from last to first in Sunday’s Feature Race.
What made this special was that his weekend did not get off to the best starts, given that he spun into a stop between the two Lesmos in Qualifying.
To make matters worse his rivals in the title fight were also the top three in Qualifying, with Zane Maloney on pole, Isack Hadjar in second, and Paul Aron in third.
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But somehow from a tough situation he was able to rescue his weekend in a magical way. So, here is how he did it…
Starting in P22, Bortoleto was on a mission on Saturday and by the end of Lap 1, he was already up to P17 – although some of that was due to a multi-car collision involving Oliver Goethe, Zak O’Sullivan, and Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
His charge continued at the Safety Car restart, sitting in 13th by Lap 7 and by Lap 12, he was 10th having overtaken his teammate Kush Maini and his rival Hadjar.
He now had a 3.3s gap to make up to ninth place but Bortoleto was flying in free air, setting the fastest lap on Lap 13 with a 1:33.567 – two-tenths quicker than the previous best time set by Victor Martins.
Bortoleto then closed in on Jak Crawford but struggled to get past with the DAMS Lucas Oil driver, who was clocked going through the speed trap at 329.2 KM/H – the fastest of any driver in the race – showing how strong he was on the straights.
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But he did move up to ninth when Maloney and Aron collided on Lap 19 with the Hitech Pulse-Eight driver forced to pit.
On to Lap 21 – the final one of the day – and with Crawford having overtaken Hauger, Bortoleto looked to do the same to take the last point.
But they were equal at the chequered flag, forcing them to share the point. It may have just been half a point, but it was a sign of Bortoleto’s tremendous pace, and of things to come.
In a 30-lap race, to go from last to first, there must be some luck on your side and for Bortoleto, that was in the timing of the Safety Car, yet that was only part of the story.
He had though made an even better start than the day before and was up to P15 by the end of Lap 1.
He steadily made his way up the order and on Lap 8, with many of the front runners having pitted to swap their Supersoft tyres for the Mediums, Bortoleto was now in the lead.
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Then came the Safety Car following Hauger’s stoppage at Turn 1. The timing of this could not have been better as it was within the pit window, giving him a cheap stop.
He came back out in P6 on his own fresh set of Mediums and as the net race leader.
But even still, there were 22 laps to go, he had to make his way past the Medium tyre runners who had not pitted, and Maloney, who had been fast all weekend, would be chasing him down.
The Rodin Motorsport driver led Free Practice and Qualifying and had been in superb form in the lead of the race in the opening stint, creating a gap of 1.7s to the rest of the field early on.
But Maloney could not catch him, instead he finished second over nine seconds behind Bortoleto. So, how did that happen?
Speaking after the race, Maloney felt he killed his tyres fighting the likes of Roman Stanek, Juan Manuel Correa, and Oliver Goethe. But Bortoleto also had to battle his way through, even if he did have fewer cars to pass.
FEATURE RACE: Bortoleto goes from last to first to take stunning Monza victory

Looking at their times across that stint, Bortoleto was on average 0.445s quicker than Maloney. If you only count the laps where they were in free air, the Brazilian was 0.447s faster.
When you break down the times even more, Maloney was quicker through the first sector by 0.027s on average.
But Bortoleto was superb through the second, where he was 0.227s faster, and the third sector where he was 0.247s quicker than Maloney.
From Lap 14 to 29, each lap was consistently in the 1:33s. Digging deeper, in the final sector of those laps, he completed all in the 31-second range.
Likewise in the middle sector, he routinely completed that in the 31s, although he did dip into 32s on Lap 15. He achieved this consistency while also keeping his tyres in excellent condition.
He was near faultless and to show how much he had in reserve he set his fastest time of the day on the final lap.
The feeling afterwards was that he was excellent through the high-speed sections. At times, he was almost pushing his rivals through the Lesmos, Parabolica, and Ascari when coming through the field.
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Looking at Bortoleto’s onboard camera, this proved to be true.
At the Lesmos corners he was able to position his car perfectly to get it straightened faster on exit so that he could get on throttle quicker heading down to Ascari.
When he got there, he absolutely attacked the chicane, hitting the first left hand apex, before riding the curbs to open up the exit before getting on power on the drive down to Parabolica.
Once he got to Parabolica, he took a tighter line, leaning on his car, showing how much confidence he had himself and his machinery.
He did all this while being able to deal with and drive through any sudden snap of oversteer that he got.
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It was a remarkable performance, from a driver who is full of confidence in both himself, and the machinery at his disposal. He closed to within 10.5 points of Championship leader Hadjar, setting us up for an exciting final three rounds. The 2024 title fight is very much on.