Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda had differing but amicable takes on their Lap 1 crash in the Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Firm friends off track, rivals on it, the Red Bull Alpine pairing lined up eighth and ninth on the grid at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit on Sunday.
Alas, as the pair approached Turn 4 on Lap 1, both their races were to come to a crashing halt.
Gasly hoped to make a move around the outside of Tsunoda, but the two touched, spinning the Frenchman’s Alpine straight into the wall and out of the race.
Tsunoda, meanwhile, carried on to return to the pits, before the Red Bull mechanics deemed his car unfit to continue.
“It’s hard to blame either me or Pierre,” Tsunoda said post-incident (via Motorsport.com)
“I’ve done as much as I can to avoid it.
“I was fully in control in terms of speed and I was not, like, almost crashing into the car in front, which was Carlos [Sainz].
“I was fully in control and I tried to avoid as much as I can, to not hit Pierre, especially that probably it is the most-tight corner of this track.
“It is a shame how it ended up. You could say there was space but from my point of view I had no space and I tried to slow down to avoid it.”
Gasly accepts incident, but not the whole blame
Gasly and Tsunoda developed a fast friendship during the days of AlphaTauri, as teammates in 2021 and ‘22.
It’s not uncommon for incidents on the track to tear up such friendships, but on this occasion, all parties were willing to accept things as they transpired.
“There’s no need to say too much about it,” Gasly exclaimed. “I know him.”
Still, despite feeling no ill-will or wanting to express too much of an opinion, Gasly did progress, or imply, that he was the innocent party int he Lap 1 crash in Saudi.
“It was never intentional but on my side, I had a good line coming into Turn 4, I could brake quite late and try and leave as much space as I could on the outside of Turn 4,” he explained.
“So I already have the car pass the white line.
“I had to keep my two wheels inside the track to make sure the pass was done.
“I mean, at the end of the day, it’s a tiny touch, but it’s just a shame it’s put a stop to both of our races.”
The racing incident was unfortunate, with both drivers having qualified in the top-10 and missing out on the chance to score crucial points.
Tsunoda was looking for back-to-back points with Red Bull, which now sits just 11 points ahead of Ferrari in the Constructors’ standings.
Gasly, on the other hand, was looking to press on from Alpine’s first points of the season in Bahrain.
With his team-mate Jack Doohan failing to score, Alpine remains joint-bottom of the standings with Sauber on six points.
Meanwhile, a double-points finish for midfield rivals Williams has catapulted the Grove-based outfit to fifth in the standings on 25 points.
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