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Pierre Gasly missed pipping Kevin Magnussen to P7 on the grid in Mexico City by only 0.006s after his Alpine ran out of battery power just before the line.

The Frenchman thus had to settle for eighth place, having qualified seventh last weekend in Austin.

Two strong performances within seven days indicated that the team’s latest upgrade package introduced at the US GP has already paid off, and it was even sweeter given that Gasly was only 20^th after struggling in the earlier FP3 session.

He admitted it was frustrating to be so close to repeating his Austin performance.

“Yeah, especially because we ran out of battery, l don’t know, 70 metres before the line,” he said when asked by this writer about the gap.

“So these six-thousandths, we clearly had them. But I’m looking more the bigger picture. This morning, we were P20, absolutely nowhere, struggling for grip, on the softs. The whole weekend’s been quite difficult, and I could not get the car where I wanted.

“Made a lot of changes before quali, and then it was just a completely different story. So straight away from Q1 I managed to put some strong laps, and then after that, just being able to repeat it.

“So definitely happy. Since we have the new parts in Austin, we were Q3 last week, we were able to do another Q3, so definitely on the right path.”

Gasly admitted that he wasn’t optimistic after being at the bottom of the times in FP3.

“Honestly this morning, I just could not believe it,” he said. “Just everything felt wrong. And going into quali, the confidence was extremely low that we will get out of Q1.

“The car was just more together. Going over these kerbs, I didn’t manage to get it right once during the whole weekend, throughout the whole free practices.

“We managed to find a bit of consistency in quali, and managed to find some good time there. In the high-speed section, you need to really have a good car balance to really be at the limit there. And that’s what we managed to find.”

Gasly confirmed that the upgrades are working well, although it’s not easy to find the sweet spot.

“Since last week we clearly seem to have the best performance we’ve had all year,” he said. “The window is quite small though, we’ve seen in practice, it was difficult. It’s still important to get it right, but there is definitely some potential.

“Excluding the top four, we were the best of the midfield in Austin, and again today, without that battery, we’re again P7. So definitely some positives.”

Gasly confirmed that the team still needs to do a decent race with the upgraded parts.

“We’ve still got to confirm our performance in the race,” he said. “ Austin was not a good race for us. I think we understood what went wrong.

“We got the learning from it, and that’s why, for tomorrow, I’m a bit more hopeful, but still, I think for all of us, it’s important we show some good race pace tomorrow.”

Meanwhile having been encouraged by the upgrade package on Friday Gasly’s team mate had a difficult Q1 session, and could not better 19^th.

“We did minor setup changes,” he said. “But unfortunately, something didn’t quite work for us, because we were clearly very slow, a lot of understeer in the car. It was very difficult.

“It was a frustrating session, and we need to be on top of that. We are very different across cars this weekend, and we need to understand went wrong, and what we could have done better.”

Fastest in FP1 Russell then had a second big crash

George Russell left his Mercedes Formula 1 team with a second major repair job within a week after a heavy crash in FP3 in Mexico on Friday.

Having topped FP1 Russell crashed early in the second session, which was devoted to 2025 Pirelli tyre testing.

The incident came after his crash in Q2 in Austin last Saturday, which ultimately obliged him to start from the pitlane because the length of the repair job forced the team to take his car out of parc ferme.

Russell says the Mexican crash caught him by surprise.

“Definitely feel a bit winded after that one,” said Russell after his second crash. “But honestly, I don’t really know what happened. The car just started bouncing on the ground, and before I even had a chance to catch it, it was already spinning.

“I tried taking the same line, cutting that corner, and for whatever reason on this occasion in FP2, the thing just started going on me.

“So yeah, a lot of work for the guys tonight, again. Just seems like it’s one thing after another at the moment. It’s frustrating as in FP1 we were really strong, really fast.”

Meanwhile Ale Albon missed most of Friday after a collision with Ferrari third driver Oliver Bearman in FP1.

Albon clipped the slow-moving Ferrari and then had heavy contact with the barrier. The team was unable to repair the car before the end of FP2.

“I think he got told very late that I was coming up behind him,” Albon said of Bearman. “He tried his best to speed up into the two or three high speed corners. We caught each other at exactly the worst moment on the track that you can, I think there was a 100km/h difference in terms of speed.

“So I don’t blame myself, but I don’t think it’s all on Ollie. I think he could have been told a bit better. Of course, also the closing speeds in F1 are much higher than F2.”

Yuki Tsunoda says that Formula 1 drivers are being expected to “drive like AI” in the wake of the raft of penalties dished out over the US GP weekend.

He also compared the situation with the driverless autonomous racing event seen at the Yas Marina track this year.

The RB driver was among those penalised in Austin, in his case for going off track and gaining an advantage when battling with Alex Albon.

“I feel like they are expecting us to drive like a machine, like AI, and try to follow every driving rule, or whatever,” he said. “In the end we’re doing racing. That’s why people look at it, it’s kind of battling between drivers. We try to fight each other with passion, right?

“And if they we do remove that, it’s just going to be like AI fighting, probably like the one in Abu Dhabi. It’s better to watch that.

“If I remember correctly, other drivers didn’t really complain radio as well. So yeah, for sure, it’s hard. Obviously, it’s been a topic multiple years ago, but hopefully one day we can be aligned a little bit, or at least more closer.”

Tsunoda agreed that the rule about the driver ahead at the ape having priority is not straightforward to police.

“It’s hard, because it depends on how they define that,” he said. “And if I remember correctly, the cars inside or whatever were ahead at the apex, the outside can back off.

“Or the outside car, if he was ahead of the inside car in the apex, he’s the guy who had had priority.

“But in that case it’s better to just launch it into the apex, even you go off track. And try to get it ahead, get the priority and make the corner. So it’s big difference between what we trying to achieve in the corner, and what they’re thinking, I think.

“And, yeah, it’s hard to be aligned because, but I think that most important thing is they should think they should hear more for the experienced driver [steward]. I think they have an experienced driver to kind of advise how the situation is. I think the ex-driver should have more rights to say something, to give more decisions.”

Gasly admits that Alpine didn’t get it right in Austin

Pierre Gasly says that his Alpine Formula 1 team didn’t “execute the race in the best way” after tumbling out of a potential top 10 finishing position in the US GP.

Having qualified an unexpected seventh Gasly gained a further place on the grid when George Russell was consigned to a pitlane start.

He held onto P6 in the initial stages of the race until Haas “played their cards” and pitted the chasing Kevin Magnussen early.

Gasly was called in to cover the Dane when he was still comfortable on his medium tyres and wanted to stay out.

A slow stop then also proved costly, and as Gasly tried to recover ground he picked up a five-second time penalty for gaining an advantage by going off track while battling with Ale Albon. He eventually finished out of the points in 12^th.

“It wasn’t good enough,” he said when asked by this writer about his race. “We haven’t executed the race in the best way. We took a good start. I was in P6 managing the tyre, everything was looking good, and Haas obviously played their cards.

“They had two cars, they decided to put the pressure with one. And we just fell for it, and reacted when the medium was the better compound for the race, at least for us.

“We reacted to it, slow pit stop, lost four or five seconds in the pit, exited in the traffic, and just struggled massively on the hard.

“I mean, just felt like we’ve left too much time on the table today, and it wasn’t a well-executed race from our side. So obviously quite frustrating after putting ourselves in a strong position yesterday.”

He added: “There is some positive, there is clearly the qualifying, we have some potential. There are conditions where the car seems to work.

“The first stint felt like it was well-managed. The pace was there to hang on to that sixth place. The hard tyre was very bad.

“So yeah, clearly things to understand. Still I’m frustrated right now, but looking at where we were the last few races, there is definitely some improvement.”

Like other drivers Gasly questioned the penalty that he was handed by the stewards.

“I don’t agree with it,” he said. “I accept it, and that’s the FIA, at the end they always have the last word, but I’m sure we’re going to talk about it. And to me, I’m side-by-side with Alex at the apex, I expect him to at least leave me 20cms of race track, so I can leave my inside wheel on the line.

“But if he goes on the line, the best I can do is be on the kerb. So I tried the best I could to stay on track, hoping he was going to leave me some room. But then I’d rather avoid a contact. There was just no space for me there.”

Gasly acknowledged that still finishing 12^th on a day when things went wrong at least indicated that the Austin update package was working.

“Yeah, that’s the positive,” he noted. “At the end today, we didn’t do the best job in the race, and still finish P12, not too far from P10.

“So it clearly gives us hopes that if we execute a stronger race in the last five, we might have one or two occasions to fight for that last point.

“Obviously frustrating as a team when you see Williams get that last point. And I do feel with different decisions, we could have been there, but that’s F1, and there are clearly some improvements overall for next year.

“It’s important to see that what we’re doing is paying off in terms of overall competitiveness. Now we just need to make sure we keep improving, and keep adding more performance to it.”

Gasly even surprised himself by earning P7 in Austin

Alpine Formula 1 driver Pierre Gasly admits that his charge to seventh on the grid for the US GP was “a fantastic surprise.”

He will actually start from P6 after George Russell was obliged to start from the pitlane.

Gasly has a package of updates on his A524 this weekend, while Esteban Ocon still has the earlier version.

He was fifth in Q1 and eighth in Q2 before securing seventh in the final session, which was curtailed by a yellow flag for George Russell’s crash.

Alpine has failed to score a point in the past four races.

“It’s a fantastic surprise,” he said when asked about the session by this writer. “I’m very happy because we made quite a lot of changes after the sprint, and on a sprint weekend, it’s not easy, because you don’t have much time to actually figure it out, especially when you’ve got a new package and new parts on the car.

“You don’t have much time to understand or try things, and we made quite a few changes setup wise, and the car was just in a much better place. So a lot more potential, more drivable, more controllable.

“It was reacting well to my driving, and I was just very pleased. A lot more enjoyable, and I managed to put some very strong laps, Q1, Q2, Q3, so very happy for the guys to see the parts have some good potential.”

Gasly stressed that his consistent pace through qualifying was encouraging.

“Clearly, today we were in the mix, and every single lap I was putting out there put us in a decent position,” he said. “So it wasn’t only one lap. That’s what I’m most pleased about. I think now we still need to figure out.

“We obviously have some ideas. I know what we’ve changed on the car, and the effect was, let’s say, quite important for what we did. And I’m sure it will help the guys to to unlock even more potential.”

He added: “To be fair, everything we are doing, the most important thing for me is really to figure out and understand as much as possible from this package for next year, from this season.

“We’ve done so much races, we’re not really fighting for any important position in the driver on the team championship. So for me, it’s anything we can take that allow us to be fighting for points consistently next year is definitely positive. And that’s what the guys gave me today.

“So also very pleased to see the correlation. Whatever they’re seeing, they’re coming with a new package, so not always guaranteed that it delivers. And there is definitely some, some good potential.”

Gasly concedes that in the Austin race his fight will be with the cars behind him on the grid.

“I think at the moment, looking at the last few races, we were fighting to get out of Q1,” he said. “Now we made it to Q3, I think that’s my best qualifying of the year. So I think before looking at the top four, we’ll look at our battle.

“I think Alonso, we’ll be able to fight him. The Haas look very strong all weekend. So I think they’ll be the ones which are going to be slightly more tricky to keep behind. But yeah, I’m sure we’ll be.”

George Russell said he paid the price for a lack of performance from his Mercedes W15 by pushing too hard and crashing in qualifying in Austin – an incident that has obliged him to start from the pitlane.

Russell went off in Q3, ending the second runs of the rest of the field and leaving himself in sixth place on the grid.

The crash damaged the upgraded floor and other parts on his W15. Mercedes only has two sets in Austin.

Lewis Hamilton offered to donate the new parts from his car but Russell is reverting to an older spec, which will involve a significant rebuilding job by the crew.

On sprint weekends drivers can go back to an earlier declared spec while under parc ferme rules, but because of the work required the team had to drop out of parc ferme. That triggered a pitlane start.

“All season when the car is in the sweet spot we’re fighting for poles and wins,” he said when asked by this writer about his session.

“Yesterday we were both fighting for pole, and today we were both almost out in Q1. I really pushed it on that last lap, and ultimately trying to find performance that wasn’t there, and paid the price.

“And I’m really just disappointed with myself, because everyone’s worked so hard to bring the upgrades – now that’s in the bin.”

Russell couldn’t explain why the W15 was not as competitive as on Friday, when he qualified second for the sprint.

“We don’t have the answers,” he said. “Because we keep finding ourselves in this position. It’s how the cars interacting with the tyres, the temperature, small changes, the wind, small changes.

“But it has been the story of the season. Old upgrades, new upgrades, either we’re there, or we’re half a second, six-tenths off.”

Regarding the damage he said: “Right now the concern is about the bits. We will have to revert on the upgrades Lewis has kindly offered his ones, but we’re not going to swap. So I don’t know what, what’s going to be happening now, but that’s the biggest concern.”