After qualifying his Alpine P7 on Saturday, Pierre Gasly finally gained one position and crossed the finish line P6 at the 2026 F1 Chinese GP.
Initially, the Frenchman was gifted two positions after both McLarens were not able to start the race, leaving P5 and P6 empty at the starting grid. Yet, Gasly was immediately fighting Hadjar and Bearman at the start before they almost got together in turn 12. That left him in a comfortable P5, pulling away from the midfield group.
On Lap 10, Stroll brought his Aston Martin to a stop, and the Safety Car was deployed. Gasly changed his medium tyres for hard and placed P9 at the restart, just ahead of Bearman. Eventually, the Brit and Verstappen overtook him, although the Dutch driver later retired his car.
Pierre Gasly finally scored 8 points at the 2026 F1 Chinese GP, carrying his streak from Australia. However, this time he was not alone, as his teammate Franco Colapinto also managed to get his A526 in P10.
Gasly on being disappointed to not overtake Bearman
“Yeah, I must say I’m very happy,” said Gasly on his performance after the 2026 F1 Chinese GP.
Nonetheless, the Alpine driver pointed out that he felt a bit sour for not being able to overtake Bearman, who crossed the line in P5. After a constant battle against the Haas driver, Gasly felt he struggled after the safety car with a lack of power initially.
“Deep inside me, the very competitive gear is a little annoyed not to get that P5. Because, yeah, I really felt comfortable before the safety car was pulling away. The pace was all fine.
“I wasn’t getting too carried away because I knew with these new cars and this new race it’s not about whether there’s going to be a safety car, it’s when is there going to be a safety car.
“So, yeah, eventually it happened. Bunched up the whole field and at the restart, for whatever reason, I didn’t have the power when I went on power out of the last corner. So, Ollie passed me very easily. Lost the position there.
“And then the mid-race and all the fighting with the Haas, with Max and all of that, I kind of lost ground a bit on Bearman.
“Once I managed to clear all of them, I think I was a bit more than five seconds behind Max and eight seconds behind Bearman.
“It was quali lap after quali lap. So, on this side it was really enjoyable.”
By the end of the Chinese GP, Gasly finished just over 2 seconds behind Bearman, who clung onto P5, delivering 10 points for Haas. As he stated, the gap had been over 8s after he finally cleared Ocon and his teammate.
“I managed to catch up, but I put in my mind ‘I’m getting them no matter where I was’… And in the end I just came short by two seconds. But still a very good day for the team.”
Gasly praised Alpine’s performance so far in 2026
Pierre Gasly currently sits at P7 in the F1 2026 drivers’ championship standings, between Norris and Verstappen, with 9 points collected at the Australian GP and the Chinese GP.
During the F1 2026 Chinese GP, Alpine scored double points for the first time since 2024. Colapinto finally caught up to Gasly’s pace on Sunday’s race and gained the last point available in P10.
The Frenchman also had the “top speed of the race”, as a graphic showed after the Chinese GP, hitting 354 KM/H (219 MPH).
Overall, Alpine seem to have improved drastically from their disastrous season in 2025, where they ended up last, with only 22 points in the Constructors’ Championship.
When asked about their team’s performance and how they beat other teams with the Mercedes’ engine, Gasly stated:
“Yeah, I think looking at ‘25 where we were and where we are now, it’s a completely different league. So, I’m very pleased.
“We did a good job in qualifying. A couple of tenths on the McLaren, the first stint. I wasn’t losing massive ground compared to the Ferrari.
“There’s still many, many little things which we need to fine-tune and fix, which are not unfixable limitations. So, I’m pretty confident.
“Time will tell. Hopefully, the performance will be quite similar to here in the coming races.”
