Gasly carries Alpine in 6th place Constructors: “In the last races, we are clearly in the game”

Pierre Gasly, the opportunist! The Norman collected ten crucial points on Sunday by finishing 5th in the Qatar Grand Prix, his second best result of the season after his incredible podium in Brazil. Points that allow Alpine to go back in front Haas in the Constructors' Championship in 6th place, now five points ahead of the American team.

However, his race had started badly: starting 11th, an average start had relegated him to 12th place. Nevertheless, thanks to the set-up changes made on the A524 after the Sprint, Pierre Gasly adopted a solid race pace to return to the Top 10. The French driver then took advantage of the second Safety Car to stop and climb to 6th place.

Despite a big scare at the restart with a wheel lock where he could have hit the drivers in front of him, the Rouen native managed to stay in contact with the leaders before picking up 5th position after the heavy penalty of Lando Norris. A position dearly defended in front Carlos Sainz in the last laps of the race which allows Alpine to arrive in Abu Dhabi, the scene of the last race of the season, with a small cushion of points ahead of Haas.

Pierre Gasly (Alpine), 5th in the Qatar GP : “It was an incredible race, I’m really happy. The car worked really well, we managed it well. I didn’t have a very good start, I got blocked and lost positions. I tried to stay calm in the car and I felt good, I managed the tires well. I managed to get through tsunoda, Alonso, I was faster than Magnussen. When he stopped, I tried to attack and we were really fast. It's very positive: we made some changes that helped us compared to the Sprint race. Then, we managed to get away at the end of the race with the hard tires, there were 2-3 things happening in front, it was also very close with Carlos [Sainz] on the last laps to keep him behind. We had to defend a lot but in the end, we managed to hold on so we're very happy."

(On his defense of Sainz) "It wasn't easy because I had to save a bit of my tires, fuel... There were a lot of things to manage. What we'll remember is the performance. We were really fast. I'm satisfied, it's been a few races [that we've been performing]. We saw it in Las Vegas, we couldn't score the points we should have by starting 3rd (retirement due to engine failure, Editor's note). In the last races, we're very clearly in the game and we know how important these points are for us, for the championship. Now, we're going to have to stay focused: there's still a week of work to go that's going to be important for the whole team."

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