Pierre Gasly finished in eighth place in Spain, earning important points for Alpine in what is becoming a very close competition in the Teams’ Championship. While the French driver felt relieved, Franco Colapinto had a more difficult time and described his race in Barcelona as “tough.”
Gasly started in the top 10, so Alpine was hopeful for a strong performance on Sunday. However, they had to work hard to secure those points due to different strategies and a late Safety Car. When the Safety Car came out, Gasly was using medium tires, but Alpine made the smart move to quickly switch him to soft tires.
This change gave him enough grip to defend against challengers from behind, although he ran out of time to catch Isack Hadjar ahead of him. He finished ninth but moved up to eighth after Max Verstappen received a time penalty.
“It was a tougher Sunday for us, but overall it’s great that we scored points today,” Gasly said. “The start of the season has been tough with a challenging few races recently, and we knew as a team that we needed to recover here in Barcelona.”
“Qualifying went really well for us, but we seem to have more difficulties on race days. We have a lot to analyze from today’s race. I felt relieved when I saw the Safety Car near the end, and the team did an excellent job making the right decision to give me space for fresh tires.”
Despite Gasly’s points, Alpine dropped to P10 in the championship after Nico Hulkenberg’s impressive drive to P5 allowed Kick Sauber to surpass them.
Colapinto began the race in last place on the grid. Although he finished in P15 and gained useful experience, he described his performance as “disappointing.”
“It was a tough race and a disappointing afternoon. We had better speed today compared to earlier this weekend, which is a good sign, but this track makes it hard to pass other cars, so it was difficult to make any progress,” the Argentine said. “The tires struggled a lot in the dirty air, adding to the challenges. This shows how crucial track position is during races, and I know I can improve in that area, especially when it comes to getting the best out of the car with low fuel during Qualifying.”
