Pierre Gasly says that he wound’t been “pissed for two weeks” if he came away from the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix without a point-scoring finish.
Gasly endured a disastrous qualifying debut with Alpine as he was knocked out in Q1 and forced to line-up at the back of the grid for the race start.
“I think a bit for me went to be too aggressive with the car setup for quali and chasing a lot the front,” Gasly said, explaining his qualifying struggle.
“[We] just went a step too far for quali and did a mistake in my last lap which cost me also the Q2.”
However, a strong race recovery followed as he progressed to ninth place at the chequered flag.
The Frenchman almost got by Valtteri Bottas for eighth late on as he pitted under a Virtual Safety Car for Soft tyres, which gave him a significant pace advantage in the final laps.
Reflecting on his drive after the race, Gasly says he was determined to put points on the board in his first race for Alpine.
“I was so upset yesterday night that I was like there is no other way than getting points tomorrow,” Gasly said. “Otherwise I’ll be pissed for two weeks.
“We definitely knew that top four [teams] will be slightly out of reach even if we qualify in our position at the moment.
“So I think ninth is pretty much where we were about to finish. I would have gotten Bottas with a better qualifying so that’s the only thing.
“But I mean it was the best recovery we could do from from P20. And I know that race after race we’re gonna learn about each other with the team.
“They’ll understand what car balance I like, what stuff they can do from session to session. We’ll understand each other better so it’s definitely a good base to work from.”
Alpine suffered a difficult race on the other side of the garage, with Gasly’s team-mate Esteban Ocon issued several penalties throughout the grand prix before retiring.
Despite the mixed weekend, Gasly has backed Alpine to have improved form at the coming races.
“If we can get that Joker [race] out of the way for the rest of the season that will be nice but we figured out what went wrong yesterday and I’m quite confident and it’s definitely positive if I can get back into points from P20,” he said.
“We just know if we start in the right position. I think there’s definitely some bigger points to fight for and I know the pace will just get better and better as well as the races goes.”
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