Gabriel Bortoleto and Max Verstappen - Photo: Race Pictures

Verstappen a fluent Portuguese speaker soon? 'Kelly can teach him a lot!'

10:29, 07 Nov

Updated: 11:04, 07 Nov

1 Comments

byTobia Elia

Gabriel Bortoleto opened up about his friendship with Max Verstappen ahead of his first home GP at Interlagos.

“I think he has a girlfriend that can teach him a lot – so it’s not exactly only me!”

- Gabriel Bortoleto

When jokingly asked if the four-time world champion is becoming more Brazilian over time, the local hero highlighted how his partner Kelly is giving him a big hand with it: “I think he has a girlfriend that can teach him a lot – so it’s not exactly only me! There are a lot of people from Brazil around him.”

When asked how much Verstappen has helped him in his young Formula 1 career so far, Bortoleto added: “He helped me a lot. We do a lot of sim together, we play games together. He’s a guy I admire a lot. He’s been working together with me since F3, helping me out there and helping me on all my path to Formula 1.”

Finally, Bortoleto revealed that Verstappen understands Portuguese far better than people might think: “He speaks Portuguese very well – so if you’re speaking Portuguese around him, he can understand. He just doesn’t talk it. But many words – and definitely a guy that I’m proud to be a friend of, and happy that he helped me so much.”

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Bortoleto ready to live his 'dream' at the Brazil GP

For the young Brazilian talent, this is his first home GP in Formula 1, coming at the peak of a promising rookie season already highlighted by several points finishes.

Bortoleto sits on 19 points after 20 races, 22 fewer than his teammate, who, however, boasts far more experience on the grid and a podium to his name, snatched in dramatic fashion at Silverstone.

Here’s what the Brazilian had to say ahead of the weekend and his thoughts going into it.

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