Pierre Gasly finished eighth in Spain, to add some more vital points to Alpine’s tally in what is shaping up to be an incredibly tight fight in the Teams’ Championship. But while there was relief for the Frenchman, Franco Colapinto wasn’t so lucky as he rued a “tough race” in Barcelona.
With Gasly starting in the top 10, Alpine had high hopes of a good Sunday – but they did have to work hard to get those points with varying strategies in play plus a late Safety Car. Gasly was on the medium compound when the Safety Car appeared, Alpine making the right call to quickly swap him to soft tyres.
That meant he had enough rubber to fend off any attacks from behind, just running out of time to take the fight to Isack Hadjar ahead. He came home ninth, inheriting eighth thanks to a time penalty for Max Verstappen.
“It was a more challenging Sunday for us but, all in all, it is a good outcome for us to score points today,” Gasly said. “It has been a challenging start to the season, quite a difficult triple header in recent weeks for us and we knew, as a team, after Monaco, we needed to bounce back here in Barcelona with some points.
Gasly finished eighth at the end of a hard fought race in Spain
“Qualifying was really good but we seem to struggle more on Sundays. We have plenty to review from today’s race as I was pretty relieved to see the Safety Car near the end and the team did a great job to make the right call to give me a free gap to pit for fresh tyres.”
Even with Gasly’s points, Alpine dropped to P10 in the championship after Nico Hulkenberg’s stunning drive to P5 lifted Kick Sauber above the French outfit.
READ MORE: Hulkenberg reveals ‘golden ticket’ that helped him secure impressive P5 in Spanish GP
As for Colapinto, he started last on the grid – and although he climbed to P15 at the flag and gained valuable experience, he admitted that his outing had been «disappointing».
Colapinto had a tougher race and came home down the order
“It was a disappointing afternoon and a tough race. We had better pace today than earlier in the weekend, which is a positive but it is a tricky circuit to overtake so it was generally a hard one to manage and make any progress,” the Argentine explained.
“The tyres were suffering a lot in the dirty air, which made things even more difficult. It goes to show how important track position is in races and I know there is more to improve on that front on my side, especially maximising the car’s potential on low fuel [in Qualifying].”
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