Gasly, from last to seventh at Imola

By starting from fifth row in Imola (Italy), Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri) hoped better thana final seventh place at the 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. The French driver actually raised the bar after a difficult start to the event.

What a rollercoaster today. Happy to finish 7th after being pretty much last. We kept fighting until the end. Wrong decision today with the wet tires, but we will learn together as a team. Some positives to take from the weekend, let's focus to put it all together in Portimao. pic.twitter.com/hgafKjEd1e

— PIERRE GASLY (@PierreGASLY) April 18, 2021

In fact, the Normand was one of only two competitors to wear “Rain” tires (with Esteban Ocon) while the peloton was running on “Intermediate” tires. “I agreed with this choice, the team too. But there was no grip, we were very slow,” analyzes the winner of the 2020 Italian Grand Prix.

Aware of his mistake, the team called him back to the pits, but after around ten laps. " TO at one point in the race, I even found myself last ! This is not at all what I expected. »

The red flag, waved after the clash between George Russell (Williams) and Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) allowed Pierre Gasly to get back into the game. “I left in 14th place. There, I chose to use the car's full potential on the drying track. I had some good battles and came back to seventh position.

I'm pretty happy with it as a final position – we managed to get some crucial points back for the team, which is really positive. We showed the potential of the car on Saturday », positive the Frenchman.

“Sixth place was achievable, but such is motor racing. Sometimes you make the right bet, other times you don't. This is how we learn. We will try to make the right choices in the upcoming events. »

Find in issue 2308 of AUTOhebdo, on sale Monday evening digitally and Wednesday on newsstands, the analysis of the F1 at Imola by our F1 journalists.