Pierre Gasly was delivering an impressive first part of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix when contact with Lewis Hamilton and a controversial decision by Alpine ended his points hopes, dropping the Frenchman to a bitter P13.
After a strong qualifying that saw Gasly go through to Q3 and put himself in front of his teammate Esteban Ocon, the 27-year-old had a very disappointing end to his campaign.
Firstly, he put on a show on the first lap overtaking both Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez to go from P10 to P8 in the blink of an eye, but ultimately that was going to be the only highlight of his race.
Once this happened, the Mexican driver tried to take back his starting position, but he made small contact with the rear of Gasly’s car at turn 6. The same story repeated again with Hamilton later in the first stint. He clouted the Alpine’s diffuser to cause more damage to the A523 — it cost Gasly a chunk of lap time.
“There were a couple of things that didn’t go our way. At the start I had a really good move into Turn 6, overtaking Lewis (Hamilton) and Checo (Perez), but Checo clipped the back of my car.
“So I had the first bit of damage and a couple of laps later Lewis finished me. He just drove into the back of my car, broke all the diffuser, so from there on it was kind of damage limitation and we were losing quite a lot of downforce,” said Gasly.
To finish his hopes entirely, the team decided to pit him on lap 17, which led him to be behind Ocon, who pitted one lap earlier. Ocon had been behind before those stops.
Obviously, the driver of car number 10 wasn’t happy with that decision, and he said he would discuss it internally after the race.
“It should not happen. “The leading car always has the priority and we know it should not happen.
“So, I’m sure we’ll learn from it and I’m sure it won’t happen again.
“I think the main conversation will happen in the office and I’m sure we’ll have it.”
P13 was the best result the Frenchman could bring to his team, finishing just behind his teamate, who also had a ‘not perfect’ race to conclude the season.
Although it didn’t end well for Alpine in Abu Dhabi, it’s been a huge first season for Pierre Gasly with the French brand. The podium at Zandvoort is the obvious highlight.
“Yeah, I mean overall I’m really pleased. Because changing teams and coming to my first season with Alpine it was always going to be quite difficult at the start and quite tricky.
“Second part of the year was definitely better and really happy with the mindset and mentality I am seeing inside the team. I know for next year we will start with much stronger foundations than I was 10 months ago in Bahrain.”
Photo Credit: BWT Alpine F1 Team
