A welcome boost for Alpine: Pierre Gasly finishes eighth in the Spanish Grand Prix, securing four much-needed points in the battle at the back of the field. After a challenging start to the European triple-header, the Frenchman is visibly pleased with the result, which he largely attributes to his strong qualifying performance.
Pierre Gasly finished the Spanish Grand Prix where he started: in eighth place. With this result, the Frenchman concludes the first European triple-header of the season on a positive note: in Imola, he was stuck at P13 after a lackluster race, in Monaco he started eighteenth and retired early after a crash with Yuki Tsunoda. “It was a challenging Sunday for us, but all in all, it’s a good result for us to score points today. It was a challenging start to the season, a fairly difficult triple-header in recent weeks for us and we knew that as a team, after Monaco, we had to bounce back here in Barcelona with some points,” Gasly told F1.com.
Struggles on Sunday
In Barcelona, Gasly drove a solid race. When Liam Lawson was rapidly closing in during the final stages, the Frenchman was relieved when the safety car came onto the track following Kimi Antonelli’s retirement. Gasly was in ninth place at the time and managed to maintain that position, but due to the time penalty for Max Verstappen, he eventually moved up a spot. “The qualifying was very good, but we seem to struggle more on Sundays. We have plenty to analyze after today’s race, as I was quite relieved to see the safety car towards the end. The team did a great job by making the right decision to pit for fresh tires without losing a position,” said Gasly. “We did our best and I know we will evaluate as a team. We need to keep working hard and really strive for solutions to some of our weaker points heading towards Canada.”
