Pierre Gasly suffered a fruitless F1 Singapore GP, despite lining up seventh, as the A526 did not allow for more.
Pierre Gasly has shown incredible qualifying form this F1 season, consistently finding himself in Q3. Although the Frenchman often converts a strong qualifying position into a top-ten finish, he failed to secure points at the Singapore GP.
The Alpine driver lined up seventh on the grid despite qualifying eighth, as George Russell served a grid penalty. The start of the Grand Prix saw Gasly lose out to Liam Lawson and Nico Hulkenberg, and with a lack of race pace, the Frenchman finished eleventh.
“We had no power out of the line,” Gasly said, speaking of the race start. “We need to review, because this year we’ve had really good starts.”
Gasly: ‘I’m sideways every time I touch the throttle’
The Frenchman began the demanding race at Marina Bay on the Medium tyre before eventually opting for Softs. Despite fighting to defend his 10th-placed position in the final stint, issues with the A526, combined with immense tyre degradation, prevented him from doing so.
“On a track with a lot of low-speed [corners], a lot of tractions, we just ran out of tyres after three laps,” Gasly explained.
“In quali you have cold tyres, over one lap they don’t have time to heat up so much. In the race, out of the box it feels good; one lap, two laps, third lap, our tyres are over the roof and we have no traction. We know it’s a limitation of the car, but I was a bit more hopeful.”
For a while, it looked probable for the Frenchman to defend his position and keep Russell and Hadjar away. However, once the drivers got close, defending became rather difficult.
At the end of the Grand Prix, Hadjar finished 12 seconds ahead of Gasly, while Russell was an additional 5 seconds ahead of the Red Bull driver.
When asked whether he was hopeful of Russell and Hadjar remaining behind him, Gasly explained the real issue of being ‘sideways every time’ he stepped on the throttle.
“Again, our problem is I can’t get out of any corner. It’s one thing to be slow, but if you can actually get out of the corner with reasonable speed, you can keep them behind. The problem is I’m sideways every time I touch the throttle.
“I was trying anything I could with the battery [against Russell], but again, I don’t feel like today I was ever in a position to actually… Even I felt a tiny bit faster than Nico at times, but I just can’t get out of the corner. Any time I go on power, I’m sideways, I’m losing a bit of ground and then I can’t make it up later in the straight.
“I think it’s pretty clear what we’ve got to work on. We know why we have some of these issues with the rims we’re running. But it’s just on a track like that, it’s costing us a lot.”
Although Alpine seemed to be closing in on Racing Bulls in the Constructors’ Championship, issues over the last couple of races have widened the gap to 32 points. Alpine sit sixth in the Standings with 68 points.
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