The result that went into the book at Zandvoort was Nico Hulkenberg eighth, Gabriel Bortoleto 13th, Audi's fourth points weekend in a row. The image that will last is the two Audis occupying almost the same piece of track at the end of lap one.
Max Verstappen had already gone into the wall at the damp, banked last corner. Bortoleto spun a full circle in the smoke and stopped in the road. Hulkenberg was next.
"It was scary, sketchy. You're a passenger," Hulkenberg said. "I tried to react as late as possible and then just instinctively chose a side. Obviously I was waiting to see if he was going to slide up or down, on a wet track it's sketchy and difficult. Luckily we managed to avoid that."
He told Motorsport.com the whole circuit was dry except that corner. "[...] A good portion of luck not to hit each other there, but that was too close for comfort." Then he put a measurement on it: "I saw it happen almost in slow motion at that speed. A sheet of paper would have fit between us, but not much more."
Bortoleto would not let the spin define his afternoon. His car was undamaged; he restarted 17th and finished 13th. "I just saw big smoke coming out," he said. "I think it was Max that crashed and then I maybe made a small reaction on the steering. But I just felt something and then I also lost the car. I did a 360, came back."
What happened after that, he would not say on the record. "The issues go a little bit further than that. I don't want to go too much into details because I don't know if I can say, but we just need to understand some stuff that happened today and we move on."
Allan McNish, Audi's racing director, had both onboards up on the pit wall. "I live every second with them, which is why I'm turning grey very quickly at times," he said. He only understood how close it was on the replay. "When I first saw Gabriel spinning and then Nico coming out the other side of it, I didn't quite realise that he had gone into the smoke. So, it was a bit too much Days of Thunder for my heart."
McNish, who has won Le Mans three times, gave each driver a different job. Hulkenberg had "instinctive knowing where to go and what to do. Some people have got it and some people don't." Bortoleto had to hold a spinning car "in the middle of the circuit" on a banking, rather than let it "spoon up into the wall." Then McNish stopped separating them. "Whether it was instinct or skill and focus or anything else, I don't know. But it was a bloody good save!"
Edd Straw of The Race did separate them. Hulkenberg's verdict was "Tricky Friday and Saturday, but a superb Sunday." Bortoleto - "the more convincing Audi driver in terms of single-lap pace" - got "Fast but grand prix spin badly hurts his ranking." Four points went to the German. The Brazilian left with nothing but the save.
Hulkenberg, at least, wanted the points talked about. "Super important for the team and the championship, but for the mood, it gives everyone a lift," he said. "It confirms the work that we've put in, that we're in the right direction. Very pleased about it, also for me personally, it wasn't the easiest weekend Saturday and Friday."
The championship table will keep the eight. Everyone else will keep the gap that was not quite a crash.