After a double podium in Brazil and a third-place qualifying in Las Vegas—where he retired due to engine failure—Gasly had momentum heading into the 2024 Qatar GP.
Starting in 11th place after narrowly missing Q3, he lost out to Magnussen and Tsunoda at the start, before clearing the Japanese driver after the first Safety Car.
Utilising Safety Car conditions, Gasly pitted for fresh tyres and moved ahead of Carlos Sainz on the track.
“A lot of laps during the race were just flat out at the limit of the grip of the car and trying to get everything out of it.
“Being on top of the graining and the degradation of the tyre. But it’s just a great challenge, and I felt good in the car.
“A bit of a battle with Kevin [Magnussen] at the start. I was in his gearbox, but I could feel I was faster. And as soon as he came in, we just had an amazing pace.
“Very strong race. One of the best days, obviously, after Brazil during the season. I’m very proud of the guys to see how much performance they managed to bring throughout the whole year.”
Opening stages of the Qatar GP for Gasly
Although the Safety Car benefited his race, Gasly believed he had excellent pace on the medium tyres.
This was particularly evident after Kevin Magnussen’s Haas team pitted for a fresh set of hard tyres.
With Magnussen out of the way, the Frenchman pulled away from Fernando Alonso, and he was lapping faster then the Dane who was on fresh hards.
“Every lap, I was going faster and faster, and that medium tyre on my car was just amazing.
“I could see, I think, as soon as Kev came in, I was opening four-tenths a lap on Fernando.
“I was three-tenths faster than Kevin with the new hard, and I didn’t want to box.”
Safety Car benefit
As he did not pit before the Safety Car, Gasly found himself in P6 as he jumped Sainz, Hamilton (punctures), and he was also ahead of Russell and Magnussen.
That became P5 when Sergio Pérez spun out behind the Safety Car.
“So, I knew if there is any safety car, virtual safety car, I will benefit from it. And at that stage in the race I was just overcutting and gaining time on them.
“So, I had no reason to box. And we put ourselves in a position that if there is a safety car, we can benefit and it happened. So, obviously, it worked out well for our race.
“But then, obviously, the last 16, 17 laps, this car was behind. It wasn’t easy to keep it behind and we managed to do it.”
Gasly defending against Sainz in the closing stages of the Qatar GP
In the last part of his comments, Gasly refers to his defense against Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari. The Alpine driver successfully kept Sainz behind him, finishing the race in fifth place.
This is an impressive result, especially considering the Frenchman had to lift and coast during stages of the final 10 laps.
“It doesn’t really go together,” the Frenchman notes about his fight with the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz while having to lift and coast.
He continued, “fighting and racing a Ferrari while doing lifts and coast or when he’s riding my gearbox.
“I tried to manage it the best way I could, and at the end, I really wanted to get that P5 and all the important points are in the championship.
“I must say I enjoyed that race so much.”
Gasly highlights his intense battle with Sainz, noting three instances where the Ferrari driver nearly had the run required on him.
“I can spot three moments where I think he had a good run to get past me and I had to make a decision to either cover the inside line or the outside line.
“There is a different way of going through there. I think I first went on the inside, then stayed on the outside. He was a bit surprised at the last one on the inside.
“I think I was pretty happy with my defense and managed to place the car quite well, so he couldn’t get a move.
“But, yeah, it was intense because he was faster and I think he had one mistake in the last corner. There was one lap he was quite close, and he lost his second.
“I managed to do a bit more lift-off at that time to build a bit of margin, but then after, he got right back behind me.
“It was intense, but, as I said earlier, this year, I didn’t have many days where I was fighting for a P5, and I had to put my A game on, and I really enjoyed this type of race a lot.”
Avoiding Sergio Perez
Although Gasly finished strongly, his race faced some challenges. The Alpine driver largely avoided trouble but experienced a tense moment when Sergio Perez’s Red Bull spun directly in front of him before the penultimate restart.
The 28-year-old prevented contact by taking avoiding action.
“Not really. I want to see the highlights because, yeah, I’ve seen a lot of safety cars and debris. There seemed to be quite a lot happening.
“On our side, I just tried to keep it clean. It wasn’t easy because I think I had Checo spinning right in front of me, rolling back. I thought it was going to hit us.
“I played safe, went through the gravel and the dust. There was a lot of dust in my tyres.
He had a massive lock-up into turn 1 on the restart, losing out to Russell and Sainz, although he got the Spaniard back for P6 at turn 6.
Norris’ stop-go penalty put him back into the top 5.
“A corner before the restart and, I arrived into Turn 1. I thought it was fine.
“When I took the brake, I just went completely straight. I locked up all front tyres because I think they were full of dust.
“So yeah, I had a couple of moments as well where it was pretty intense.
“But, in the end, I think we executed a very strong race and managed to definitely get the best out of that race.”
Partnership with Esteban Ocon
The 2024 Qatar GP marked the conclusion of his partnership with Esteban Ocon — a fierce rival of Gasly during the karting days.
Gasly will be teamed up with Jack Doohan for the upcoming Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Despite this change, Gasly attributes the team’s recent successes to himself and his former teammate, acknowledging their efforts in pushing the team forward.
“I think over the last two years, we’ve worked really well with Esteban.
“I think he was very professional in our approach.
“We both have the same ambition and from that point onwards, we knew that we had to push the team in the same direction.
“I think we’ve had similar feedback most of the time.
“He’s obviously very talented. He’s very fast. I don’t think this year was the easiest season as a team, obviously, from where we started.
“But, nonetheless, I think the development that happened throughout the whole year is obviously thanks to the team but thanks to the way we’ve been able to push them together as well.”
Ahead of the season finale, Alpine sits P6 in the Constructors’ Championship with 59 points. This puts them just five points ahead of Haas, with VCARB trailing by an additional eight points.
