Mexican Grand Prix – Pierre Gasly just outside the points and very close to a race suspension

After a good Friday where he entered the Top 10 in both free practice sessions of the day, Pierre Gasly failed to confirm on Saturday with a disappointing 14th place in qualifying, just behind his teammate Yuki Tsunoda.

At the heart of several battles in the pack, it was the one against Lance Stroll that garnered the most attention. At turn 4, the native of Rouen launched an attack on the inside against the Aston Martin driver, but ended up with all four wheels behind the white line marking the track.

Found guilty of an illegal maneuver, Gasly was penalized with a five-second penalty and received one point on his license. Without that, he would have finished in the points, as he crossed the line in eleventh position, just six tenths behind Valtteri Bottas’ tenth place.

« It’s difficult starting 14th. We tried everything, we were close. Without the penalty, we would have finished in the points. I don’t have much to say about the penalty. The team didn’t ask me to let him pass so I didn’t do it. It’s always the same story. Last week too, we could have finished better without a penalty. I’m going to have to change my approach moving forward. »

The future Alpine driver here refers to the upcoming Grand Prix races. With ten penalty points on his license, he is not far from the twelve units, which would result in a race suspension. Gasly therefore has very little room for error. Calculated over a rolling twelve-month period, the points of the Frenchman will only start decreasing in May next year.

Implemented in 2014, the points system aims to penalize dangerous behavior on the track. Since the introduction of this rule, no driver has yet reached the twelve-point threshold. As a reminder, the last driver to be handed a race suspension was Romain Grosjean in 2012, guilty of causing a pile-up at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix.