Pierre Gasly has likened Formula 1's Austrian Grand Prix to a rallycross race and says he almost went off the circuit "20 times" after sustaining heavy damage at the start.
The Frenchman tangled with McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne on the opening lap which caused rear-damage to his Toro Rosso and made keeping it on track difficult, with Gasly calling it "one of the toughest" races ever.
"For me this was honestly one of the toughest races I’ve ever had," he said after finishing just outside the points in 11th.
"After the contact with Stoffel on lap one, the rear was suspension was bent and he also took half of the floor away so from that point I was just sliding everywhere, fighting so much with the car, so we were quite lucky to go until the end.
"I almost went off 20 times in the race, just trying to keep it on the track. For sure it would have been nice to score points, but we tried everything but it was almost more driving a rallycross car than a Formula 1. It was pretty tough."
Describing the incident, Gasly accepted that it was a simple mistake by Vandoorne: "I had Lance [Stroll] on my left and he had [Nico] Hulkenberg to his left. I think we were four wide and the track wasn’t wide enough.
"I know Stoffel, he’s not careless, it was probably just misjudgement or something like this. I know he didn’t do it on purpose but it certainly affected the rest of my race."
Gasly added that it was unfortunate not to capitalise on a race littered with retirements.
"It was quite a big shame, because when you see [Lewis] Hamilton and [Valtteri] Bottas out, Daniel [Ricciardo] out, there was a big opportunity and I think P8 was easily within our reach in normal conditions.
"After lap one I thought they were going to box me, because I was going to get a puncture or the suspension was going to break, but we managed to go until the end. It was really, really tough."
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