Sauber’s Bortoleto, the back-to-back F2 and F3 champion, had a promising begin to his F1 debut however was one other to be caught out by the rain on Sunday.
The Brazilian, 20, outqualified his extra skilled team-mate Nico Hulkenberg however crashed late in the course of the race and was compelled to retire.
The rookie who bucked the pattern was 18-year-old Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Lewis Hamilton’s alternative at Mercedes who made his approach by the sector from sixteenth to complete fourth.
He did have a spin and was given a five-second penalty for an unsafe launch from the pit lane, however that was later overturned.
The Italian grew to become the third-youngest driver in F1 historical past and was “actually completely happy” with the outcome and thanked the workforce for doing an excellent job at “guiding” him by.
Regardless of it being a tricky day on the workplace for a number of of the rookies, they are often comforted by the truth that a few of the extra skilled drivers have been additionally caught out by the circumstances.
Final yr’s winner Carlos Sainz, now at Williams, crashed on the primary lap however was in a position to present priceless strategic perception for the rest of the race, serving to team-mate Alex Albon to complete fifth.
In the meantime, essentially the most skilled driver in F1 historical past, 43-year-old Fernando Alonso, could not keep away from the wall both, crashing his Aston Martin to carry out the second of three security automobiles.
The F1 calendar takes the groups to China subsequent weekend and the rookies is perhaps relieved to know that sunny and dry climate for all three days is the early forecast.
