Pierre Gasly said the United States Grand Prix was his best weekend at Alpine so far after taking his second-biggest points haul of the season.
He twice benefited from penalties for Mercedes’ George Russell on Saturday. The first lifted him to ninth on the grid and the second promoted Gasly to seventh in the sprint race.He started the grand prix seventh, ran two stints on the medium tyres then pitted on lap 37 for a shorter stint on the hard rubber than many of his rivals. The strategy paid off as the late pit stop only lost him two places, which he took six laps to gain back and finish eighth.
With only an hour of practice available, Gasly said he and the team worked well to optimise the car’s balance.
“I think we identified very quickly [in practice] what didn’t work so well on the car and made the right changes,” he said afterwards.
“So, I’m very pleased in terms of work and performance and extracting the maximum out of the package. I think that was probably the best weekend so far this year and that’s why we need to build on for next season.”
Gasly suffered a setback at the start when he dropped three places on the opening lap. However he said his cautious approach paid off and ultimately what put him in a strong position.
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“There were just some pretty aggressive guys out there,” he said. “I knew I had to keep my nose clean because we had the pace today and there was no point to risk everything in the first lap, so I think it paid off.
“I managed to get the best result in both races. I was P7 yesterday, P8 today and the car ahead of us is the Mercedes of George, which also finished in P2 with Lewis [Hamilton] in both races.
“We know we are not there yet to fight with these guys, so I must say I’m pleased with the way we’ve executed the whole weekend and from the team I think it’s probably our most complete weekend so far this season.”
Gasly moved up two places in the final classification following the disqualifications of Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. He therefore finished sixyj.
Alpine have experienced a season of turmoil after failing to build on the promise they showed last year. Their CEO, team principal and sporting director were ousted earlier in the season and their chief technical officer is moving to a rival team.
However Gasly said their Austin result shows the team is making gains. “I think it’s about the processes and the way that we’re working and trying to improve in all different areas: analysis, reviews, feedbacks, reactivity,” he said. “There’s definitely some very good progress happening.
“So I’m very pleased with the way we’re working. This is not perfect, there’s still things we can improve, but I think the main focus is just trying to find a package which is stronger and with more potential than what we have at the moment to close the gap with the guys ahead of us.”
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2023 United States Grand Prix
- US GP was Mercedes’ best race of 2023 despite disqualification – Wolff
- Singapore and Austin retirements cost me top 10 championship place – Ocon
- United States Grand Prix result unchanged as FIA rejects Haas’ call for review
- Sargeant admits he’s ‘struggled to use all the downforce at times’ in F1
- Mercedes’ Brazilian GP set-up was “conservative” after US GP disqualification
Facts&Stats
24th October 2023, 7:36
It seems the keyboard also moved up two places ;)
On a more serious note: I wonder if part of the relative speed for Alpine was also due to how low they set up their car.
Two teams (cars) were cleared and at least three others indicated that they set up the car higher/different to cope with the track specifics.