Gabriel Bortoleto will miss the second free practice session at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after Stake detected a leak in the fuel system of the Brazilian's car. Due to the extensiveness of the repair work required, the Swiss-based team will not be able to get the 20-year-old out onto the Jeddah Corniche Circuit by the time the hour-long session has concluded. It is bad news for the rookie, who finished FP1 bottom of the classification, after setting a lap time of 1:31.038, over 1.1 seconds adrift of team-mate Nico Hulkenberg, who was P12. "Unfortunately, we discovered a fuel leak on Gabriel’s car after FP1, which cannot be fixed in time for FP2," the team confirmed to media including RacingNews365 . "The cause of the fuel leak is currently being investigated by the team. For this reason, Gabriel is unable to take part in FP2." As things stand, it looks as if the team may also opt for a full chassis change on the F2 champions car. If that is the case, he would be prohibited from taking part in FP2 anyway, as it would not have been scrutineered in time. It has been a difficult start to the Stake driver's debut campaign. Although he has shown strong pace at points, particularly over one lap, he is one of just four drivers yet to score a point this year.
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