At the São Paulo Grand Prix, Alpine gained seven points thanks to impressive races from the both drivers in Interlagos on Sunday. Pierre Gasly climbed from fifteenth on the grid to seventh at the end, whilst Esteban Ocon moved up from fourteenth to tenth.
However, Brazil left two Alpines with completely different emotions, despite the fact that they both completed the race in points. While Esteban Ocon was not entirely pleased with his P10 finish, Pierre Gasly was very pleased with his strong drive to seventh place after starting in P15.
Photo Credit: BWT Alpine F1 Team
After making two great starts that put him in the top 10, Pierre Gasly brilliantly handled his strategy, moving through the field and overtaking Lewis Hamilton for seventh place in the last stint.
In addition to that, Magnussen and Albon being eliminated on lap 1 was a golden opportunity for Gasly. His race was undoubtedly made brighter by fighting it with the Mercedes and Ferraris, even though he just lacked the ultimate pace to catch Sainz in the last stint.
Gasly was delighted with his day’s work when speaking about it post-race.
“I think it was one of our best races of the year to be fair.
“It was two very very good starts, managed to pass cars on both occasions. On the second start I managed to get in the gearbox of Sainz, and pretty much the whole race I was keeping up with Sainz, the Aston in front, the Mercedes I had as well, and we managed to make the two-stop work.
“Good tyre management, good pit stops. I passed George and Lewis on the race track, and in the end where I was managing to lap like a tenth from Carlos in the whole race.”
Brazil was definitely worth mentioning, especially in light of the French driver’s season-long performance. Gasly, who later termed his day at the Sao Paolo Grand Prix “one of the best performances” in 2023 was very happy with the outcome.
“I am very happy because we’ve been struggling a lot on this track since we arrived. One of the best performances,” he added.
Alpine struggled somewhat in qualifying as Ocon and Gasly could only manage P12 and P13. They both demoted two spots for impeding cars on pit exit.
However, the decision to trim downforce and go for straight-line speed paid off handsomely in the race as he got in a DRS train early on and showed strong pace all day.
“We knew it was a compromise to accept and especially with such small gaps. I think we missed out on Q3 by four-tenths. That’s pretty much what we were seeing from the sim.
“But then after we knew in terms of racing it was better. Yesterday we didn’t really manage to make it work. It was hotter and we were struggling with temperatures.”
“Today I managed to get in the good train of cars, and I think we did some good learnings from the tyre management yesterday.
“We saved a new set of softs for the last stint which I think was definitely the right strategy to do as a team.”
During the race, Ocon let Gasly by as the 2020 Italian GP winner had more pace on the day. Gasly was pleased with the teamwork shown.
“I think he struggled a bit more today.
“We knew at some point we might come together and there will be no point to waste any time. It was good work from us as a team.”
Photo Credit: BWT Alpine F1 Team
