Being stuck behind one-stoppers cost us seventh in Spain, says Gasly

Pierre Gasly made it a second points finish in three races with P9 in Spain but the AlphaTauri driver thought P7 was possible, if not for the one-stopping cars of Kevin Magnussen and Esteban Ocon that held him up at Catalunya.

AlphaTauri’s sole points-scorer in Spain managed to qualify P10 ahead of the Ferraris and was up to P8 by the end of the first lap. He pitted on Lap 21 for medium tyres, then found himself held up behind the drivers who had stayed out longer to complete a one-stop strategy – including Renault’s Ocon and Magnussen in the Haas.

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“I think the strategy was great and I feel like the second stint we lost quite a bit of time when we were stuck behind Magnussen, Ocon and these guys trying the one-stop,” he said after the race.

Highlighting the difference between being stuck behind another car at the Circuit be Barcelona-Catalunya and running in free air, he explained: “All the time I was clear and I was in free air, I had a lot more pace so I think all these laps, maybe we lost about four, five seconds, which cost us, I think, seventh at the end of the race.

“At the end it’s racing, everybody tries different things and you need to make the best of it and I think we can be pleased by a good performance,” he added.

Gasly pitted again for mediums on Lap 42 to come home in P9 with two points, just ahead of Lando Norris – whom he took a place off at the start of the race.

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“What a great start, I was really happy to pass Charles [Leclerc] and Lando in Turn 1 and after that we tried to push as hard as we could. And it was pretty tight the whole race with [Alex] Albon, Carlos [Sainz] and Lando – we had a pretty tight battle and, in the end, we managed to get these two points,” he concluded.