Finishing fifth in the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday, Pierre Gasly could not contain his joy after an excellent performance in his Alpine car.
Pierre Gasly (Alpine, 5th), speaking to Canal+: “It was truly an incredible race! I’m really very happy, the car performed very well. We managed well, after a mediocre start where I lost a few positions because I got blocked. I tried to stay calm, I felt good, we managed the tires well. I felt faster than Magnussen. It’s very positive, we made some changes that helped us compared to the sprint.
Perez spun out in front of me, he started to roll backwards, I thought I was going to crash into him. I had to leave the track, I picked up dust, gravel and two turns later, I resumed. I thought the grip would be okay but at the first turn, I hit the brakes and locked both front tires. I got a bit scared because I couldn’t slow down the car, I found myself far off the track, and I lost two positions.
“We’ve clearly been in the game for a few races now”
We did well at the end of the race, it was very close with Carlos (Sainz) to keep him behind, but we managed to hold on. It wasn’t easy, as I had to save a bit of fuel. There were quite a few things to manage, but we’ll remember the performance, we were really fast. We’ve clearly been in the game for a few races now. We know how important these points (10) are for the Championship. There’s still a significant week of work ahead for the team.”
Esteban Ocon replaced by Jack Doohan in Abu Dhabi
