Gasly feared Perez crash on run to Eau Rouge in Belgian F1 GP

Pierre Gasly admits he thought he was about to hit the wall when overtaking Sergio Perez on the run to Eau Rouge in the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix.
Gasly feared Perez crash on run to Eau Rouge in Belgian F1 GP

Pierre Gasly admits he thought he was about to hit the wall when overtaking Sergio Perez on the run to Eau Rouge in the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix.

Gasly overtook the Mexican on the short straight between the first corner and Eau Rouge, with the Racing Point driver squeezing him as he went through.

The Frenchman made several ballsy moves throughout the race as he went onto finish eighth - a result which won him the ‘driver of the day’ accolade.

Reflecting on the battle with Perez, Gasly said: "Honestly, I thought we were in the wall. I'm not kidding! I was inside and I thought 'I can't move more than that', and at that point, we are going 280, 300 km/h. Sergio really squeezed me. I thought 'I'm not going to lift, I'm going to make this work'. It was tight. Sergio is a hard racer, I knew it, but there for sure, my heartbeat went slightly higher. But I was committed and it was a great one."

"You expect respect from everyone, you know where the line is and you should not cross it. It was borderline, but there was space for one car and that was it."

Gasly made a good start from 12th on the grid on the hard tyres but AlphaTauri opted not to pit him under the Safety Car meaning when he did make his stop, he dropped well down the field before making his way through the pack once again in the closing laps.

The Frenchman was surprised by the pace he showed at Spa, in particular on the hard tyre in the early stages of the race.

"I must say it was a bit difficult initially compared to the other guys with the option [medium], so I tried to keep it clean, stay close to the guys ahead. I was happy to make these two positions on lap one, because we didn't expect that.

"We expected to struggle a bit like the first three laps, and it was the opposite. I felt great. I had quite a lot of pace compared to the other guys and then I straight away went for some moves."

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