Could Pierre Gasly dream of better this weekend? A victory no doubt, but let's not go too far. With the difficult season that Alpine is experiencing, this double podium achieved by the French team feels like a victory. We have to go back to the 1997 Spanish GP, with Olivier Panis and Jean Alesi, to see two French people share a podium again, and that of Interlagos brought together two old childhood friends, whose paths diverged before they were partners at Alpine.
Esteban Ocon, second, and Pierre Gasly, third, accompanied Max Verstappen on the podium of the São Paulo Grand Prix, an event which had its share of twists and turns. As he leaves Brazil with a new trophy, Pierre Gasly could not imagine such a conclusion to the weekend after his hard awakening this morning.
“It’s historic!”declares Gasly at the microphone of Canal+. “A double for us, with second and third place, and the season we have, it's unexpected. It's difficult to find the words. I'm super happy for the whole team, everyone who has We've had a lot of stuff since the start of the season… how can you say that without being vulgar?
“It was hard, we didn't give up and we never gave up. Today, we start 13th on the grid, we had no luck in Q2 but behind us we didn't lower the pressure. arm, we tried to keep a cool head, not to make mistakes and to come back as much as possible. It's incredible.
Pierre Gasly, Alpine A524
Photo by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Images
“It's just very beautiful. It's very beautiful in relation to the whole story, to what we're building. Even with Esteban, we have our ups and downs, we have our personal story which only concerns us and who is unique. We come from the same place, from Normandy, we are from the same generation and today it's a very nice podium with Max, him and me. Lots of nice things today.”
During qualifying in São Paulo, postponed until this Sunday morning due to weather conditions, the Frenchman only set the 15th time in Q2, frustrated at not having been able to do any laps on intermediate tires.
Starting 13th on the starting grid due to penalties from Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz, the Alpine driver got off to a very good start. After three laps, he was in ninth position, before losing a place, overtaken by Verstappen.
But during the Virtual Safety Car and then during the safety car, Gasly remained on the track, finding himself in third place, behind Ocon and Verstappen. Colapinto's accident then sealed Gasly's fate. Red flag waved and race neutralized, the Frenchman was able to change his tires when the race was interrupted.
Pierre Gasly, Alpine F1 Team, third
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
With an interesting pace, the Alpine driver was able to maintain his position on the restart. Threatened by George Russell during the final laps of the race, Gasly managed to resist him. The Frenchman achieves the fifth podium of his career.
“I knew that in these conditions there would be more opportunities. As I told the team, this morning I was frustrated not to have made a lap in Q2, even though there was performance to go to Q3 I told them and they know it, it's the kind of race where anything can happen.
“I made a very good start, I tried to stay on the track. We had good speed, we made the right strategy choices. We stayed outside during the deluge, it was almost impossible to drive on the track We had to try to stay on track even if we were very slow. We managed to hold off Russell until the end, it's deserved, especially for the team. I'm thinking of Enstone and Viry. [Châtillon]. It's a complicated year for us but it will warm everyone's hearts.”
Thanks to this result, Alpine moves from ninth place in the manufacturers' standings to sixth place, ahead of Williams, VCARB and Haas.
