Pierre Gasly frustrated after rival F1 team was 'gifted' points in late-race drama
Pierre Gasly admitted Alpine was left with a 'painful' outcome after late-race retirements handed unexpected points to direct rivals.
As it stands, Alpine and Racing Bulls are currently locked in a battle for fifth place in the Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship.
However, across the last two race weekends, Racing Bulls have gained the upper hand over Alpine, as they have outscored their rivals in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
In Baku, Alpine failed to score points due to a collision between Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly. However, in Sepang, it was a different circumstance due to the weather conditions before the race.
Gasly had qualified inside the top ten for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, but after starting on slick tyres, he dropped back through the order, and was not able to recover throughout the race.
On the other side of the Alpine garage, Colapinto also failed to score points, after also starting on slick tyres.
Whereas, both Racing Bulls drivers scored points, with Liam Lawson in seventh and Arvid Lindblad in tenth, extending the team's lead over Alpine to 22 points.
After the race, Gasly said, “Obviously, for the team, it's a very painful day because even with Russell and Norris in the end, it gave like an extra five points to Racing Bulls for free.
“So at the moment, they just seem to be gifted in the last 10 laps of the race, so yeah, it's quite a big gap, but we'll approach it race-by-race and try to close it.”
Ahead of the Grand Prix, Gasly had shown good pace in practice and qualifying. However, even when slick tyres were the optimal tyres, the French driver did not have the same pace as he had earlier in the weekend.
The 30-year-old believes that he may have damaged his Alpine on the sighting lap, as he had a ‘massive off’ whilst trying to get temperatures into his slick tyres in the wet conditions.
He explained, “Honestly, we need to have a look, because the car felt quite different. I was struggling massively with the balance, very odd behavior.
“I wasn't happy at all with the car, even on the dry. So I don't really know, I had a massive off in the formation lap trying to warm up the slicks.
“I don't know if I damaged anything, but generally I think even on the dry, we were not bad, but I don't think we had the same pace as yesterday, so we need to review a few things.”
