Saudi Arabian Grand Prix – Pierre Gasly: « I was really sick »

It was a relatively difficult start for Pierre Gasly, who lost two positions in the first laps of the race. At the lights out, the Normand lost a position to Kevin Magnussen’s Haas. Shortly after, Lando Norris dived on the inside of turn 1 to take the 10th position from the Frenchman.

Finally in the 4th lap, Pierre Gasly launches an attack on the McLaren in order to get back into the points. A position he could only hold for a few laps before being overtaken by Lewis Hamilton in the 14th lap.

Pierre Gasly was one of the victims of the safety car deployment on the 16th lap of the race. Indeed, just after his pit stop, the circuit went under safety car conditions, which allowed the AlphaTauri’s rivals to make their stops without losing time and therefore overtaking Gasly.

On the 29th lap, Pierre Gasly overtook Nico Hülkenberg to take the 13th position.

While the points seemed out of reach for the AlphaTauri driver, the successive retirements of Fernando Alonso, Daniel Ricciardo, and Valtteri Bottas will see Pierre Gasly propelled to 9th position.

After Lewis Hamilton’s late pit stop, the Frenchman manages to climb up to 8th position. This is followed by a calm end to the race for Gasly, who finishes in the points for the first time this season.

It was a eventful race. We didn’t have a very good start. Our pit stop after the safety car cost us a lot of positions, it was the worst possible timing.

We ended up in 14th position and in the end, we managed to run our race and finish 8th, so I am very happy.

I was really sick in the car for the last 15 laps. It was horrible to drive, so I am really happy to finish in 8th position.

These 4 points synonymous with the 8th position allow Pierre Gasly to open his points counter and now be at the same level as his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda in the driver’s championship. He is now 12th.