Austrian Grand Prix – Pierre Gasly back in the points
On an aggressive strategy, Pierre Gasly failed to replicate his Saturday result and finishes the race in 9th place.
As was the case at the Styrian Grand Prix, Pierre Gasly qualified in 6th position. Another impressive performance for the Frenchman who took full advantage of his AlphaTauri’s good form.
Unlike last week, Gasly’s pitstop went smoothly. He managed to maintain his position and put some pressure on Valtteri Bottas. On an aggressive two-stop strategy, AlphaTauri pitted very early, on the 13th lap. This strategy forced the Frenchman to push hard and make many overtakes. He successively passed the two Haas cars, Antonio Giovinazzi, Nicholas Latifi, and finally Fernando Alonso.
On his old hard tires, Pierre Gasly did his best to defend himself from the train behind him composed of Daniel Ricciardo, Sergio Perez, and Charles Leclerc. On the 45th lap, Gasly made his second pit stop and came out in 12th position between Russell and Alonso. He overtook the English driver five laps later.
Coming back strong on Charles Leclerc at the end of the race, Pierre Gasly was unable to overtake the Ferrari and had to settle for 9th place.
« Starting with the soft tires was more complicated than we thought. We lose a lot of time in traffic during the second relay. The degradation was more significant than we had expected. After looking at where the other cars that started on the same strategy finished, I think we can be satisfied. We finish not far from Ricciardo and Leclerc but we were missing a little bit.
Pierre Gasly now has 39 points in the championship and is in 9th position in the Drivers’ standings.
