Rookie Jack Doohan was in a much happier place after the Chinese Grand Prix, despite picking up a penalty after an entertaining battle with Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar.
While Doohan didn’t score any points, the Australian gained valuable experience as Alpine continue to search for some form in 2025.
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Having crashed out on the opening lap in Melbourne, Doohan ensured a repeat wasn’t on the cards as he carefully made his way around in Shanghai. Starting down the order, points were always going to be difficult – especially when Alpine pitted him very early for the hard compound tyres.
Having to run that set for 45 laps meant Doohan found himself fighting the much fresher shod Hadjar late on, and the Alpine man threw everything at his rival to keep position.
Doohan was penalised for forcing Hadjar off-track in China
However, in running Hadjar wide at one point, the stewards opted to hand Doohan a 10-second time penalty, which dropped him down the order when applied post-race.
“I’m happy to get 56 laps more than I did in Oz, that’s for sure,” he joked afterwards.
“Tough race, elbows out and, in the end, 14th on track from where we were wasn’t too bad. We kept that [Racing Bulls] car behind for 20 odd laps, a car that’s been much quicker than us all weekend, a strong Q3 running car so I think we have to be proud of that.
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“I will have to revisit the penalty because we don’t want to be giving away spots for nothing. Although P14, P16 there are no points but still [it] would have been nice. So, just going to have to revisit it and keep our heads down for Japan.”
Doohan’s time penalty meant Hadjar was initially awarded 14th, only to later inherit three spots following the post-race disqualifications of Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton and the Alpine driver’s team mate Pierre Gasly.
Alpine remain the only team yet to score this season
Gasly had initially finished 11th, after a strong drive that also saw him have to make a set of hard tyres last nearly the full race distance. But Alpine know their struggle is in Qualifying, with their drivers starting too far back to make it to the top 10 regardless of how well they do on Sundays.
“This weekend I must say was very tough over one lap,” Gasly noted, speaking to the media before his disqualification was announced.
“We’ll take this week off coming to review what went well in Melbourne, less so in China and try to come up with a strong weekend in Japan.”
Alpine are the only team yet to score, which in a year that many expect to be one of the tightest in history, will be a concern. But with the upcoming triple-header approaching it presents three opportunities to finally get off the mark for 2025.
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