Pierre Gasly came fifth in Baku, gaining crucial points to move up in the championship. The Frenchman was thrilled to have had a trouble-free weekend
Pierre Gasly was one of the main names of the weekend in Baku. In fifth place in the Azerbaijan GP on Sunday (12), the Frenchman was thrilled with the result, and especially with the fact that he had a weekend free of AlphaTauri's problems.
Gasly valued the team's performance in Baku and the clean weekend, free of errors and problems since Friday.
"It was amazing today. To finish in the top-5 is very good, especially for the way we started the year. We haven't had much luck so far, so a clean weekend was important. We didn't make any mistakes, we had good pace in free practice, the best starting position, and today the best final position," he said.
Pierre explained that the virtual safety-car, already in the final stretch of the race, took away the chances of fourth place. The Frenchman had been holding Lewis Hamilton, but was unable to defend his position when his rival put on new tires.
"We had a good battle with Lewis, it was fun. We needed a green flag finish, but the VSC got in our way. I tried to defend myself against Lewis as best I could, but when he stopped again, he was much faster. In the end, being able to fight with Mercedes shows that we did a great job, we got a lot of points," he added.
Yuki Tsunoda seems to have taken on the bad luck that has accompanied Gasly this season. The Japanese driver had everything to be sixth, but he saw a rear wing teak collapse and was sent to the pits by the race direction. Returning 13th, unable to activate DRS, he did not return to the points.
"I'm very frustrated today. Before the crash, my race was very good, I was controlling the tires, good pace, it was an easy sixth place. I wasn't feeling the problem too much, it wasn't affecting me too much, so I was surprised when I was stopped. It's a pity to leave without points, the team did a great job all weekend, we were very strong", he commented.
With the result in Baku, Gasly passed Tsunoda in the points table. The Frenchman is now 10th, with 16 points, while the Japanese driver is 15th, with 11.