Gasly: ​​"Three long months" of waiting for points

It was at Spa-Francorchamps, at the end of July, that...Alpine had last scored a point on a Sunday in Formula 1The wait finally ended at Interlagos in Brazil, with a hard-fought tenth place finish. Pierre Gaslywho managed to keep behind him Alexander albon, Esteban Ocon et Carlos SainzWhile finishing just a few meters behind Liam Lawson in seventh place!

The Frenchman spent a large part of his race battling with the third French driver on the grid, Isack Hadjar, who ultimately finished eighth. This left Gasly with a slight feeling of disappointment, given the pace he displayed. Alpine who seemed to have made good use of the particular Interlagos circuit, composed of medium-speed corners but above all very bumpy.

"I'm very happy because we haven't scored any points on Sundays since Spa, so we've been waiting for this for three long months."he told F1TV. This weekend we showed a good pace, without really knowing how, but I was happy to be able to get involved in the fight. We battled with (Nico). Hulkenberg"With Isack (Hadjar), who finished on the podium this year. On the other hand, I feel we had better pace than we were able to show. I spent my race behind Isack, I overtook him twice in the first corner, and each time he passed me again in turn 4. It was a bit frustrating, clearly, because we had good pace, but I'm not going to complain about tenth place. It's been a long year, not always very enjoyable, so we can be happy with what happened today."

Gasly and Hadjar indeed traded positions repeatedly throughout much of the Grand Prix, partly thanks to the DRS regulations at Interlagos. Whereas in Mexico, only one detection zone was available, thus guaranteeing the attacking driver the DRS advantage on the long straight to Turn 1… and then again on the straight to Turn 4 even if they were already ahead, Interlagos has two separate detection zones. This allows a driver to overtake at the entrance to the Senna Esses, and then for their opponent to return the favor at Turn 4. Given his battle with the Racing Bulls #6, Pierre Gasly would have preferred the regulations to be the same for two consecutive Grands Prix!

“In Mexico, DRS detection is before the last corner, and you have it on the two straights that follow. The following weekend, you only have DRS on the first straight, then a new detection point and a new zone! So I was disappointed that they didn't keep the same calculation method as in Mexico! I was never close enough to overtake easily in the first corner, so I always had to take risks by diving. As a result, I compromised my exit from the second corner. In the end, I'm glad I tried because there's no point in just sitting back and doing 70 laps like that. We raced, it's just a shame we couldn't get past because I think there was potential to get behind Bearman.”

Si Alpine still sits at the bottom of the championship standings, the team ofenstone could possibly use this good result in Brazil to bring good energy to Las Vegas, another special circuit at the end of this season.

ALSO READ > Norris untouchable, Hamilton looks glum: the Brazilian Grand Prix ratings