Starting from seventh on the grid on the hard tyres, Gasly moved up in the standings as the others pitted, and by lap 44 he was in third position.
Up and down the pitlane, the riders were told of the rain, but rather than keep Gasly waiting to switch straight to the intermediate tyres, the team brought him in for the medium tire just a few laps before the rain started. which affected the last third of the race.
He was then forced to make a second stop as the rain intensified and move to the intermediates, falling back to his previous seventh position.
While pleased to see teammate Esteban Ocon finish third, Gasly admitted he was frustrated with how his afternoon ended.
“I have to say I’m disappointed and confused about my race because when we were in third position we knew the rain was coming. I was in the perfect position to stay longer for my stint,” he said when asked by Motorsport.com to talk about the race.
“I made the call via radio, I wanted to stay on track and take advantage of the conditions. Then we made a pit stop and two laps later the rain came. We have to review the reason why we pitted, because P3 and P4 were at stake for the team and there would have been a lot more points.”
“But, again, I don’t want to show too much frustration, it’s still a good day for the whole team with the podium, but we have a couple of things to improve, and we’ll do that for next time.”
Gasly admitted that staying on track when the asphalt got wet was very difficult.
Pierre Gasly, Alpine A523
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
“It was exciting,” she said. “There were a couple of big moments, I have to say the grip was extremely low. Poor visibility, blue flags, had to go through cars and debris here and there.”
“The paint on a couple of the pedestrian crossings was horrendous, so even in fifth gear you risked sliding up the hill. It was very difficult, but it reminded me of last year at the start of the race. It was fun.” .
When asked if it was dangerous, he replied: “I think there was a lap where, going down towards turn 5, I thought: ‘Something bad is going to happen’. It depended on the area of the track, some areas they were drying and had dry patches, while others were very, very wet.”
“The problem here is that you use the rubber on the dry areas of the track, and when you get to the very wet areas, it feels like the tires are half slick and it becomes very difficult.”
“I think we did a good job, slipping between the two Ferraris, but there were at least three positions we could have achieved with a better strategy.”
“But we will evaluate it and in any case it was a very positive day for the team in terms of performance, the best of the whole year, so hopefully we can start from there.”
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