Pierre Gasly was puzzled to clarify how he loved a surprisingly sturdy Saturday on the Method 1 Brazil Grand Prix.
The Alpine driver began by scoring some extent with eighth within the dash race at Interlagos, earlier than qualifying ninth for Sunday’s contest – Gasly was even only a tenth behind fourth-placed Oscar Piastri in Q3.
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This comes after a really disappointing 2025 marketing campaign for Alpine, which is backside of the championship and has not scored a grand prix level since Gasly completed tenth at Spa in July.
When requested in Sao Paulo why he thinks he was so sturdy, Gasly stated: “There are a couple of concepts, however the actuality is we do not totally know. I do not need to say something which could not be true.
“I do know the blokes are trying very deeply into it and it is fairly difficult, however we’d like some solutions. In the mean time we now have loads of questions, not many solutions. Hopefully we’ll have some extra within the coming weeks.”
It’s merely the swiftness of his turnaround that has stunned Gasly, as a result of final outing in Mexico he solely completed above team-mate Franco Colapinto and Williams driver Carlos Sainz.
Gasly was even a lap behind these on the entrance, which included runner-up Charles Leclerc, but within the Brazil dash the Alpine driver completed simply three seconds behind the Ferrari in fifth.
Pierre Gasly, Alpine
Picture by: Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Pictures
“After Mexico, the one time I noticed Ferrari was when he blue flagged us,” stated Gasly. “I did not count on to see that on a dash race two weeks later. It simply exhibits how a lot better we’re right here.”
He likened it to earlier within the yr when Gasly certified fifth in Bahrain and since then Alpine has simply regressed, as updates didn’t work as supposed earlier than the workforce stopped all automobile growth to give attention to 2026.
So, on the matter of his tempo being doubtlessly particular to Interlagos, Gasly stated: “I feel monitor traits play fairly an enormous issue, however I can not imagine it is solely all the way down to that, so we have to grasp extra.”
Saturday was a lot more durable for Colapinto although, who crashed out of the dash earlier than solely qualifying 18th for Sunday’s grand prix – two spots decrease than he managed in dash quali.
“Typically, it simply did not really feel very comfy to drive,” stated Colapinto. “The workforce did an incredible job placing the automobile again collectively, it was very spectacular. I used to be in qualifying, so I am very grateful for it, however it simply did not really feel superb.
“The efficiency of yesterday was not there as a lot at present, and it is what I struggled with. Pierre was very aggressive, so it is good to see that the automobile is quick, however we have to perceive why he could not extract the lap time.”
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