Intermediate tires at the start: Audi wastes the chance to get back into the points in Montreal

What a mistake Nico Hülkenberg’s near Q3 in qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix had given us hope for Audi in Montreal, at least to aim for a result in the points which the debuting German manufacturer has been missing since the first GP of this season. In that case, in Melbourne, it was Bortoleto who obtained ninth position, with Hülkenberg who this time seemed the favorite to return to the top 10. The mission, however, spectacularly failed for both drivers. Two teams, one wrong choice Exactly as happened in McLaren, Audi also took the gamble of using intermediate tires at the start, but from that moment on, as for the entire race, not a drop of water fell on Montreal. Consequently, both drivers immediately returned to the pits to mount the soft tires: “It was a challenging race for us – commented Hülkenberg, 12th at the finish line – looking back on it, the conditions at the start evolved differently from what we expected: it was a risk that was worth taking with what we knew at the time, but in the end the initial phase didn’t favor us and this penalized us right from the start. Even after, we didn’t have the pace to recover as we would have liked. The others around we were able to recover faster, so there are definitely things to understand and improve in this regard as well. Overall, it was a busy weekend with a lot to analyze. We will look at everything carefully, learn the lessons and focus on Monaco!” A thought shared by teammate Gabriel Bortoleto, who reached the finish line 13th: “It was a long race for us. We started with the intermediate tires because we thought they could give results, but the rain stopped rather quickly and this penalized us. The extra pit stop took us out of the fight for the victory and from then on it became a race on a free track, mainly focused on managing our pace. However, a positive aspect of today is that we brought both cars to the finish line and collected important data for the team. It’s obviously a bit disappointing because with an accident-free weekend and a hitch-free race, I think we could have scored some points, but sometimes the focus shifts to Monaco.”

Automobile Magazine – F1 English News , 2026-05-26 21:00:00