Pierre Gasly frustrated but happy for the team

Alpine seemed in great shape from the first laps. A shape that they continued to improve throughout the free practice sessions. Very comfortable with the soft tires, the French team managed to place both of its drivers in Q3, the third time in six Grand Prix weekends.

Seventh on the starting grid, Pierre Gasly had a smooth first part of the race. Starting on hard tires, he closely followed Charles Leclerc. When the Monegasque driver stopped at the pits, the Normandy driver improved his lap times and could aim for fourth place.

Only, on the 47th lap, his engineer called him to switch to medium tires. « «We’re having a good race, I’m managing the tires. Once Charles stops at the pits, I start pushing and improving. We know that rain is coming and unfortunately we came in to do two laps with the mediums,» he explains.

The rain came and ruined everything

Indeed, only a few seconds after this first stop, the rain started to fall on the Rock, forcing Pierre Gasly and Alpine to make a second pit stop to switch from brand new medium tires to intermediates.

Frustrated, the French driver does not understand this strategy, especially since he wanted to take advantage of the open field left by Leclerc’s stop. This unnecessary stop costs him dearly as he comes out between the two Ferraris, getting stuck in between them until the end. « For now, I don’t really understand the decision because it was just the ideal scenario for us,” he regrets, speaking to Canal+ microphone. “Unfortunately, we made a pointless stop when we had the opportunity to make three or four, so it’s a shame.»

He still acknowledges an ideal weekend for the team with a lot of points scored. It remains an excellent race for the whole team and I don’t want to share any frustration. It’s a lot of points, it’s just that personally I think we should finish in third and fourth place.