The disillusionment for Pierre Gasly

Pierre Gasly saw the 4th place, then the points zone slipping through his fingers. The Alpine driver, starting 4th in Las Vegas, had a very good race overall. The strategic choices were not missed for a long time, and his pace was convincing. However, Pierre Gasly collapsed in the last 10 laps.

When Esteban Ocon overtook his teammate on the 34th lap, everything became more complicated. The 27-year-old driver eventually lost six positions, dropping down to 11th place in the standings.

Impeccable qualifications

The weekend couldn’t have started in a better way for Pierre Gasly. The Frenchman first managed to qualify for Q3, while his teammate was eliminated in the first session. In this final session, he was very successful, achieving the 5th fastest time. However, the 10-place penalty received by Carlos Sainz, who was classified 2nd, allowed him to start on the second row on Sunday.

Following his performance, the French driver arrived in the mixed zone surprised by the result. “There is no explanation,” he declared. Honestly, it came out of nowhere. We thought it would be the most challenging circuit of the season. We tried many settings during practice, and the car worked well. I did some excellent laps. We thought it would be difficult to make it into Q2, and in the end, we will start on the second row. Optimism reigned in his team.

A good start

Building on his qualifications, Pierre Gasly perfectly managed the start of his race. The Normandy native was able to maintain his advantage over the Williams cars, which didn’t trouble him much in the first stint. When the first safety car arrived, he didn’t lose any positions. His decision to start on intermediate tires proved to be successful as he was able to restart relatively easily.

For several laps, Pierre Gasly managed to put pressure on George Russell, who was in third place. However, after several laps without manage to overtake him, the Alpine driver decided to let him escape a bit in order to preserve his tires.

At the 18th lap, while in second position, Gasly eventually came into the pit lane to change to hard tires.

Too much degradation

On the second stint, everything intensified. Although the first few laps were quite good from him, the second safety car will not work in his favor. With tires that have aged about ten laps, Pierre Gasly will struggle to get them up to temperature. In addition to this difficulty, his tires will quickly develop grain and therefore lose performance. “I grain the hard tires and it was just impossible,” he conceded to Canal +. “We had no speed, I couldn’t turn, a lot of understeer, no traction… It didn’t work for me, but it worked for Esteban. I think there are a lot of positive aspects. We had a very good qualifying yesterday and a good race today, so it can work.”

On the 34th lap, the loss of the 5th position in the race greatly impacted the rest of his Grand Prix. We knew there was that 4th place, maybe even 3rd, to go after, so I tried to defend as much as possible to try and achieve a good result, explained the Alpine driver. Unfortunately, it was just impossible. There are positives to take from this weekend. It’s frustrating for me personally after a very good Saturday, but we will work for next week.

Draw the positive from it

Pierre Gasly finally finished outside of the points. Although he fought hard to finish in the top 5 for a long time, the Normandy native admitted to having suffered a lot during the race. “Today, it was a bit of a defensive race,” he said to Canal+. “I spent my time having to defend my positions, so naturally, it wasn’t the most fun. However, from the spectators’ point of view, there was a great show.”

Despite this disappointment, the performances remain encouraging for the French. “I think there is a lot of positive,” encouraged Pierre Gasly. “We had a very good qualifying yesterday and a good race today, so it can work. We need to focus on the positive and try to understand what we had with the tires and come back next week.”

The next and final race of the season will take place in Abu Dhabi. Pierre Gasly has only a four-point lead in the championship over his teammate.