Bortoleto avoids penalty for yellow-flag overtake in Monza FP2 after Antonelli beaching
Gabriel Bortoleto has kept his nose clean after a brush with the rulebook in Free Practice 2 at Monza, with stewards deciding no penalty was warranted for a yellow-flag overtake on Liam Lawson.
The incident came early in the session when Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli lost the rear and buried his car in the Lesmo gravel. Yellows flew immediately and, moments later, the session went red. In that window, Bortoleto — closing fast in his Kick Sauber — slipped past Lawson’s Racing Bulls machine, which was crawling at a much slower pace.
On paper, that’s the sort of move that usually earns a reprimand at best. But the context mattered. After reviewing timing and marshalling data, external cameras and the onboard footage, the stewards concluded Bortoleto was already tucked right up behind Lawson when the first yellow was displayed on the right side after Turn 6. With Lawson partially blocking his line of sight, the Brazilian didn’t have enough time to react before the overtake. Crucially, he then backed off significantly and crept past the stricken Mercedes at slow speed.
Their bottom line: while a technical breach occurred, the circumstances meant no penalty was appropriate.
It’s the second time this weekend Monza’s mixed messages have spared a driver. In FP1, Charles Leclerc slipped by Nico Hülkenberg under a red-flag interruption with no further action taken — another call that leaned on common sense rather than the letter alone.
For Bortoleto, it’s a handy bullet dodged in what’s already a busy debut season. Kick Sauber need clean sessions and laps under the belt as they target more consistent points in 2025, and a practice reprimand — even a minor one — is unwanted baggage. The rookie has looked tidy around the Temple of Speed, where the pace delta between push laps, cool-downs and traffic can be enormous. It’s exactly the kind of environment where a yellow-flag flash can catch even experienced drivers in awkward situations.
The rest of FP2 belonged to McLaren. Lando Norris topped the times, while the FIA looked separately into Oscar Piastri over a different matter. But the bigger theme through Friday was the stewards’ willingness to interpret the flags with a bit of nuance. Monza’s long straights, high-speed sequences and short sightlines after Lesmo 1 can turn simple directives into split-second judgment calls, and this was one of them.
As ever, the message from race control is the same: slow for yellows, don’t pass. But in the rare moments when a driver is already committed and visibility is compromised, there’s room for the human element — a call that, this time, fell Bortoleto’s way.
