How Gasly scored his “hardest-earned” point for Alpine at Spa

For Pierre Gasly a humble P10 at Spa was a hard-earned reward at the end of a what had initially been a frustrating weekend.

A solitary point might not sound like much, but in a race that all 20 drivers finished, and in which he the majority of it holding off a train of potentially quicker cars, it was a most welcome result for the Alpine driver.

Gasly has been doing a good job in qualifying for much of the season, and in the sprint session at Spa he was again in the mix with P8.

Unfortunately a last minute PU issue meant that he joined the race a couple of laps down, and it turned into a test session for him and the team.

“It’s a shame,” he said when I asked him about it. “I think there was a point to grab there looking at the race, there didn’t seem to be many overtakes.

“So yeah, a shame. But unfortunately that’s what happens sometimes. And the guys did a good job to get me out there and just at least get a feel for the car, the deg, etc, with higher fuel.”

The later main qualifying session was to be a little frustrating as Gasly inadvertently found himself the first car out on the final runs in Q2, and he had to settle for P13.

“I’m happy with the laps, like all the laps were good,” he said. “The only unfortunate thing is on the last run we came out of the garage thinking everybody was ahead of us, we were going to be in the flow, and kind of get the normal slipstream of being in the pack.

“And no one wanted to be first, so I arrived at the end of the pit lane first car out there. And on my lap, I had a 50-second gap. So it’s a long way to Turn 5, and a long way back to the last chicane, which probably cost us a tenth or two. And I missed a tenth to Q3.

“The lap for me was as good as yesterday, but it’s just with these fine margins, today wasn’t quite enough without the track position.”

Alpine’s straight line speed struggles are well-known, and Gasly opted to stick with a very low downforce level, despite knowing that rain was coming on Sunday.

“I feel good with the car the way it is, and based on previous years with that level of downforce,” he said. “It’s always a compromise. Tomorrow might be wet, might be dry, might be inter.

“At the end, I’m feeling quite comfortable with the car the way it’s set up. I know that we’ve got it in a good window, and at least it’s the fastest way down the straight the way. And the corners it will be my job to figure out how to get through it if it’s wet. But generally, I felt comfortable on the wet this year, so I’m not too worried.”

Indeed Gasly and Alpine usually get it right in such circumstances, most recently in Silverstone where he earned a surprise P6.

“Honestly, I’m not even thinking about it now,” he said on Saturday of his hopes for the wet. “Because tomorrow morning, you open the curtains and you see what happens, and it can still even change before the race happens.

“We’ll have to be patient. If it’s dry, I think we chose the wing to be in a position to attack and defend, and if it’s wet, it might be slightly more tricky. But at least we will be able to be on the racy side, so we’ll see…”

In the end it all worked out, as the delayed start and then four laps behind the safety car as the track dried helped those who had edged towards lower downforce levels.

“To be fair when we started first lap we couldn’t see a thing,” he said later. “So that was the right call to put a red flag, and there was a big cloud coming. Was there a window for five minutes, potentially? But I think they did the right choice.

“And then after, it’s always the same question, could you restart the race 10 minutes earlier, later?

“I think at the end of the day, knowing the history of this track and what happens, as a driver you’d rather be 10 minutes too late than 10 minutes too early.

“On my side, they did the right the right call. You can always argue a couple minutes earlier or later. But at the end, they went on the safer side, which was the right call.”

Once action got underway on the wet track Gasly held on to P13 initially until losing out to Lewis Hamilton, whose pitlane start with high downforce helped him to move through the pack.

Then at the end of lap 11 Gasly followed Hamilton into the pits as they became the first two drivers to go for slicks.

As the stop sequence sorted itself out Gasly was up to P11, and he then spent many laps with a queue of cars behind, led by Yuki Tsunoda, Ollie Bearman, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Antonelli.

He hung onto 11^th until a stop by Nico Hulkenberg moved him up a place, and it became a fight for a point – which he duly earned.

“I wasn’t in the top 10 at that stage,” he said of the early tyre switch. “And I knew this was a big gain to switch at the right moment. The previous lap was a bit on the edge. That lap was a tricky call, but I knew there was quite a lot to gain, so just decided to go for it.

“And then once we got track position, I knew I will be in a position to defend. But yeah, I wasn’t thinking I was going to have to defend for that many laps with a train of cars that was kept growing throughout the entire race.

“So it was very intense, very intense. I’m sure I’m going to sleep well tonight, and probably one of the hardest-fought points.”

In the end his choice of lower downforce worked to his advantage.

“Yeah, definitely. I mean, if we would have been on another rear wing, we know the ultimate pace in the car is not there, so they would have just passed us. And they were faster than us on pure pace.

“That’s the sort of choice we made, to go with a very skinny rear wing, and at least give us an edge in the straight and just have to survive and make no mistake in the corners.”

It was another good team effort by Gasly and Alpine, who need to take such opportunities when they arise.

“I must say, I’m very pleased with the way we’re working, communication and just the understanding,” he said. “They are able to give me a car, which even though we don’t have the ultimate pace, we still manage to get the best out of the package we have.

“And we got it right in Silverstone, today we again got it right. I think Silverstone was good teamwork, today was more I told them, they were ready. And I just decided when I felt it was possible – I decided to dive in. And yeah, it paid off.”

With the second car yet to score this year Gasly has logged all 20 of Alpine’s points this season.

The team is still firmly at the bottom of the table, and it won’t be easy for him to move it up the order.

“We’ll see. I’m taking every weekend at a time. Silverstone and Spa turned out to be strong weekends. Next week it’s a high downforce race track, so it changes a bit the order. But let’s see what we get there.”