Spanish Grand Prix – Gasly saves the day
Starting 12th, Pierre Gasly had a very complicated start to the race but managed to get the best out of his AlphaTauri to finish in the points.
It was a disappointing qualifying session for the Normand. Despite a good level of performance during Free Practice, Gasly admitted that he didn’t feel quite comfortable behind the wheel of his AT02. While the number 10 driver had often shown himself in the top 10 during practice, he failed to do the same on Saturday afternoon.
Starting 12th on Saturday, Gasly’s race started off very badly with his positioning on the grid. Moving his front tires a few centimeters higher than the yellow marking of his placement, the winner of the 2020 Monza Grand Prix is penalized by 5 seconds by the FIA.
Fighting with the Aston Martins, Gasly attempts the overcut on the British cars by pitting on the 48th lap to put on the soft tires. However, the Frenchman lost too much time with his old medium tires and comes out 6 seconds behind Vettel’s car.
Once Vettel is overtaken, Pierre Gasly makes a magnificent overtaking move on the outside of turn 13 on Kimi Räikkönen’s Alfa Romeo before attacking Stroll’s Aston Martin a few corners later and thus entering the points zone.
Despite coming back very strong on Esteban Ocon towards the end of the race, the AlphaTauri driver fails to beat his compatriot by a few tenths.
(c) It’s completely stupid of me and I feel bad about it because we ended up a tenth of a 9th place and so I lose a point. It’s a bad judgment and I will be more careful in the next races.
Monaco is one of my favorite circuits so I’m really looking forward to being there and then going back to France to race, it’s going to be great.
It’s true that for us it has been more difficult in the last two races with Alpine, Ferrari, and McLaren seeming to have made a step forward, while we haven’t really improved, so we’ll have to work harder, question ourselves more, and see how we can be more competitive.
