Brazilian Grand Prix: Gasly saves AlphaTauri in Brazil
This is a very good race from Pierre Gasly which allows his team to stay in the battle with Alpine for the 5th position thanks to several aggressive overtakes.
Despite a perfect Friday for Pierre Gasly, which saw him qualify in 5th position, the Normand’s sprint race was less straightforward. Indeed, the AlphaTauri seemed to encounter difficulties on long stints.
Finally 7th for the start on Sunday, Pierre Gasly had a very eventful start. Distracted by the clash between the two Ferraris at the 4th corner, he went wide, causing him to lose a position to Vettel’s Aston Martin. A sluggish start that put him at a disadvantage against Ocon and Ricciardo.
Starting to lose time on the Australian driver, Gasly was forced to stop at the end of the 25th lap to change to hard tires and keep his position. Despite a very beneficial virtual safety car period for Daniel Ricciardo, Gasly managed to stay ahead of the McLaren and even closed in on the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.
On the 52nd lap, Pierre Gasly stopped again for hard tires, but he was hindered by the Alpine cars of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso. It was finally on the 60th lap of the race that Pierre Gasly got rid of his compatriot with a relatively aggressive move in the first turn. One lap later, the Normand overtook the Spanish Alpine at the 4th turn.
A very costly battle for AlphaTauri, which was now 21 seconds behind Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari. No longer able to compete with the red cars from Maranello, Pierre Gasly secures a solid 7th position for the small Scuderia, allowing his team to remain tied on points with Alpine.
« It was intense throughout the race. I made a nice overtake on Ocon and Alonso, and before that, defending against Daniel Ricciardo coming out of the pits was very intense. We finished ahead of both Alpines today, so it’s clearly the best job we could do today.
