Pierre Gasly prefers to focus on the many positive points of Alpine’s weekend at Monza despite a race inevitably tinged with disappointment after a historic pole position on Saturday.
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Starting from a completely unexpected pole position, the Frenchman was unable to hold off the leading teams over the duration and ultimately finished seventh.
After the feat achieved on Saturday in qualifying, Alpine had begun to dream of an even more resounding result. Flavio Briatore had even openly stated victory as the goal after Gasly’s surprise pole.
Return to reality
However, the Frenchman knew it would be extremely difficult to resist throughout an entire race against intrinsically faster cars: “When you start from pole and don’t win, you are inevitably a bit dissatisfied, but the realistic part of me is happy with this weekend,” Gasly explained. We have to be satisfied with the whole weekend. After yesterday, it makes you want to dream and think that it could be possible over the course of a race, but today, I think we have come back to reality.”
Despite the final result, Gasly is particularly satisfied to have been able to stay in touch with the leading cars during the first part of the race: “I managed to stay with the group in the early laps, but as soon as my performance started to drop, it became too difficult”, he admits.
Alpine ultimately had to give way to the superior pace of several rivals, but the Frenchman believes that his seventh place remains an excellent performance given the level of competition: “There are a lot of positive points to take away. We would all have liked to hope for better, but it remains a very good race, especially when you are fighting with Norris, who won the last two races, and you finish only three seconds behind Hamilton.”
For Gasly, the simple fact of having been able to compete with drivers and teams who usually run ahead of Alpine is therefore an encouraging sign.
“The best car I have driven this season”
The Frenchman was especially impressed by the behavior of his Alpine throughout the Italian weekend: “I loved this car. I think it’s the best I have driven this season.”
A level of performance that peaked on Saturday with this completely unexpected pole position: “This pole position came out of nowhere. The last 24 hours have been crazy and I hope to experience that again.”
Gasly therefore leaves Monza with some frustration after going from pole to seventh place, but above all with the feeling that Alpine had one of its best weekends of the season. The victory hoped for by Briatore was ultimately out of reach, but the Frenchman’s ability to fight with the leaders is an important reason for satisfaction for the French team.
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