‘Not nice’ – Rookies Lawson, Bortoleto and Doohan reflect on fractious China Sprint performances as Alpine driver handed penalty

Alpine’s Jack Doohan, Kick Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Red Bull’s Liam Lawson have reflected on their battling drives in Saturday morning’s Sprint at the Shanghai International Circuit, after the three rookie drivers all experienced contact out on track.

For Doohan, the Australian driver made last-lap contact with Gabriel Bortoleto, relegating him to the back of the field – a move which saw him brought in front of the stewards, who handed him a 10 second time penalty and two points on his licence (although having finished P20, the penalty had no effect on Doohan’s race result).

Making a lunge to the inside of Turn 14 under DRS, Doohan was unable to sufficiently slow and turn his Alpine, resulting in contact with the rear of Bortoleto’s Kick Sauber, pitching the Brazilian into a spin.

While Williams’ Carlos Sainz was able to avoid the mayhem, Kick Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg then damaged his front wing with secondary contact to Doohan’s Alpine.

Sprint Highlights: 2025 Chinese Grand Prix

The incident was swiftly noted by the stewards, with an post-race investigation announced.

Giving his view of the contact, Doohan said: “It didn’t go exactly as planned, but I went for a move on the last lap at Turn 14, it didn’t exactly go to plan.

“I need to have a look into it and see what happened so that it doesn’t happen again and then put our focus to qualifying.”

With limited expectations for the season, reigning F2 champion Bortoleto has impressed with his pace in the early stages of his F1 career, and he was not afraid to get his elbows out when battling at Shanghai, especially against his 2024 title rival Isack Hadjar.

‘A lot of learning for tomorrow’s race’ – Doohan taking positives from disappointing Sprint

“I think we just lack a little bit of pace here and we struggled with the tyres compared to Isack, for example,” reflected Bortoleto.

“He had so much more performance grip available. Even when he overtook me, I could see [we were struggling] compared to the other cars – I couldn’t keep him behind.

“Not an easy Sprint race, especially at the end with the contact with Jack, so we need to review exactly what happened there but I think he locked up and hit me. Just more damage. Not nice or good for us. Not good for them, but it is what it is.”

Contact with Bortoleto was Doohan’s second incident of the Sprint, with him being on the receiving end of an on-the-edge pass at the same corner by Liam Lawson, who was recovering from a back-of-the-grid start.

SHANGHAI, CHINA - MARCH 22: Liam Lawson of New Zealand driving the (30) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB21 — Lawson was on a recovery drive in the Chinese GP Sprint

“It was tricky, to be honest,” said Lawson. “I think, like everybody, we struggled a lot with tyres, with graining, so that halted our progress. I was quite cautious at the start. It was all kicking off on the first lap, so I was just trying to survive it.

“Then I started pushing a bit more and just struggled with the tyres. It’s something we’ll have to look at for tomorrow.”