Pierre Gasly praised AlphaTauri after he collected his and the team’s best result of the 2022 season at Formula 1’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Gasly qualified in sixth place at Baku and ran towards the front of the midfield throughout the 51-lap race.
Gasly profited from the retirement of both Ferrari drivers to gain position though ultimately lost out to Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who ran a two-stop strategy compared to Gasly’s one-stopper.
The resulting fifth place marked a return to the top 10 for Gasly for the first time since the Australian Grand Prix.
“It’s been pretty incredible for us,” said Gasly. “Finishing in the top five is really good, especially considering how the start of our year has played out.
“We’ve not had that much luck so far, so it was important to get a clean weekend, which is what we’ve achieved in Baku.
“We made no mistakes this weekend, we showed great pace in practice, then we had the best quali of the year and we finished in our highest position of the season to date.
“We also enjoyed a nice little battle with Lewis, which was fun. We knew at the start of the race that it would be relentless, as we headed in with just one new set of Hards, so we were really hoping for a clean end to the race but unfortunately, we had the second Virtual Safety Car, and we knew that wouldn’t play out in our favour.
“I tried to defend against Lewis the best I could, once he pitted for new tyres, but he was much faster – I tried to nurse my tyres through the race, but they really weren’t in great shape by that point.
“At the end of the day, to be in a position to fight with the Mercedes means that we’re doing a really good job, so it’s great for the team to come away with lots of points.”
Team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was forced to relinquish sixth place due to a malfunctioning DRS, eventually classifying in 13th place.
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