Gasly Felt like a ‘Sitting Duck’ after the incident with Ocon at the start of the Spanish GP

AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly’s Formula One Spanish Grand Prix was wrecked by first-lap floor damage after the incident with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon. Gasly bumped with countryman Esteban Ocon’s right rear wheel immediately after the start, affecting the balance of his AlphaTauri and making it difficult for him to defend. That was followed by another incident with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll for which Gasly also served a 5 second penalty costing him a position on the grid.

‘I was just like a sitting duck for the whole race’

Pierre Gasly while narrating the incident with Ocon expressed that floor damage that the car suffered affected the car sliding a lot, losing load overheating the tyres in high speed and hence it lacked pace. “I had damage from the first corner onwards, and then after I was just like a sitting duck for the whole race. I think we were three-wide coming into Turn 1. And from there it was just sliding a lot, losing load and you lose load you overheat the tyres at high speed, it affects all the rest of the lap, and just no pace.” said Gasly.

The five-second penalty

Later in the Spanish Grand Prix When Lance Stroll sought a pass on Gasly on the outside of Turn 1, Gasly nudged Stroll and that resulted in Stroll to spin, earning Gasly a five-second penalty. Gasly said that he accepted the penalty, which cost him a place to Daniel Ricciardo and left him 13th. “Honestly, I take the blame,” he said when asked by Autosport about the decision of the stewards. They thought that this was a five-second penalty, so it’s a five-second penalty, and I need to respect their decision as well. And it was hard racing, there was small contact, but I take the responsibility of this deserved five-second penalty.” expressed the Alpha Tauri driver.

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The Forgettable Weekend

Pierre Gasly’s weekend was already ruined by a damaged exhaust and a fire, which caused him to skip Saturday’s FP3 session. He will try to make up for his recent misfortune in Monaco. The Frenchman said it is frustrating because every race at the moment they seem to have something coming against them and they are struggling to put even a normal performance with the car that they have with which they’re expected to bring strong results for the team.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t really happen, with FP3, a couple of issues we had there, and again today. It’s part of the sport, it’s not always ideal. And at the moment we seem to have quite a lot of obstacles. But we’re not the kind of people to give up and we’ll just work with the team and come back at it next weekend and with the best energy and ambitions to do well.” quoted the 26 year old.