Another victory for Pierre Gasly at Spa-Francorchamps
Pierre Gasly was able to take his third win of the season at the end of the first race of the Belgian weekend. He finished ahead of Jordan King and Alex Lynn, while Norman Nato was forced to retire and Sergey Sirotkin had to settle for 9th place.
The two Prema drivers monopolized the front row on the Spa-Francorchamps starting grid, with Antonio Giovinazzi ahead of Pierre Gasly. Nevertheless, at the first corner, neither was in the lead. Indeed, Gustav Malja managed to take off perfectly from his third place and take the lead.
Conversely, the poleman experienced a lot of wheel spin and also saw the two Racing Engineering drivers pass in front of him. Antonio Giovinazzi’s troubles didn’t stop there as he fell victim to contact with Alex Lynn, which pushed him behind Raffaele Marciello.
The two Frenchmen quickly overtook the Swede and took the first two positions. In the 6th lap, the wave of tire changes was initiated by Gustav Malja, Jordan King, and Alex Lynn. But when Pierre Gasly stopped on the next lap, he was able to keep the lead of the group of drivers who had stopped. However, the championship leader did not want to wait for the other drivers to stop in turn to regain the lead. He was therefore able to overtake Daniël de Jong, Mitch Evans, and Jimmy Eriksson one by one.
On the 16th lap, Sergey Sirotkin was forced to pit earlier than expected, leaving his compatriot Artem Markelov alone in the lead for two additional laps. When it was time for Russian Time to pit, Pierre Gasly regained the lead, ahead of Jordan King and Norman Nato. It was at this moment that the Frenchman fell victim to a mechanical failure, which stopped at the exit of the last chicane. Immobilized in the middle of the track, it caused the safety car to be deployed.
Pierre Gasly had no problem maintaining his position at the restart and thus soared to his third victory of the season. Notably, in the last corner, Oliver Rowland’s overtaking attempt on Sergio Canamasas did not go smoothly, with both drivers making contact, allowing Sergey Sirotkin to gain two places and climb to 9th position.
With this new victory, Pierre Gasly obviously strengthens his lead in the championship and his hopes for a promotion to F1 next season. He now has a 23-point lead over Sergey Sirotkin, who is only one point ahead of Raffaele Marciello and three points ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi.
From our special correspondent at Spa-Francorchamps
