Formula 1 | Gasly believes he deserved ‘a point’ at Monaco after his comeback
Although he only started 17th on the starting grid in Monaco, Pierre Gasly knew he had something to play for when the rain appeared on the Rock.
The AlphaTauri rider decided to swap his maxi rain tires for intermediate ones at the end of the first lap of the race, and this daring choice paid off as the Frenchman overtook several competitors to climb up to 12th place in the final. transformed into 11th following the penalty of his compatriot Esteban Ocon.
And if Gasly was satisfied with his comeback, he believes that such an effort would have deserved even a small point.
“I said to the team: ‘We are 17th, so be ready because I have nothing to lose from here.’ revealed the Frenchman.
“I must say it was very exhilarating. I loved driving the car on this track in such conditions.”
“I entered the pits directly because I didn’t want to stick to the same strategy as the others.”
“We took risks and made a gamble, and I’m glad we had that mentality going this far. I had a lot of fun trying to find different lines and space between the walls.”
Although he didn’t have the DRS at the time, Galsy made two very good overtakes over Guanyu Zhou and Daniel Ricciardo, taking advantage of his tire advantage.
“I was way faster than anyone with the maxi rain, I just had to stay calm. If the guy was defending well then there’s no space left or right, so I had to show up. creative.”
“That’s what I tried to do and at the end of the day, F1 drivers are like artists, we always need to come up with new ideas. I tried to overtake in unusual places and that a market.”
Gasly thinks he could have finished 10th if his two stops had been better negotiated by AlphaTauri.
“I’m of course a bit sad that I didn’t score a point because I think I deserve it, probably. But we lost time in our first stop, 6 or 7 seconds, then another 3 in our second stop. Those 10 seconds wasted probably cost us a point at the end.”
“There are a lot of positives to take away from the weekend, especially from testing and the race.