Gasly ‘very disappointed’ with AlphaTauri showing despite P10 in Singapore, as Tsunoda accepts blame for crash
He may have finished in 10th place at this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, but Pierre Gasly was disappointed with the result, insisting AlphaTauri left points on the table – as Yuki Tsunoda accepted there were “no excuses” for his race-ending crash.
Gasly started in seventh and maintained his position after a steady start, before losing a place to the charging Max Verstappen. The French driver pitted earlier than his rivals on Lap 32 for the medium tyre, but was overcut by Lance Stroll, Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo, dropping him down the order.
Gasly was then running down in ninth place before losing another place to Verstappen. The French driver was able to hold off Valtteri Bottas for the final point but believed his team could have done a lot better.
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“I must say I am very disappointed because we were doing an excellent race,” Gasly admitted. “We were behind Lando [Norris] and ahead of the two Aston Martins and I don’t understand why we boxed so early. We didn’t have to, we just took a massive risk and lost four positions, being overcut by four other cars.
“On a track like Singapore, we know how important track position is and today it cost us a lot. I don’t fully understand why. We will have to review but for sure we left a lot of points on the table. It hurts because we have a target until the end of the year and today, I don’t think we did a good job.”
Pierre Gasly doesn’t understand ‘why we boxed so early’ in Singapore GP
Asked what the target was for the remainder of the season, Gasly said: “We’ve got to finish seventh in the team championship. We are fighting [Aston Martin]. We had the potential to finish ahead of them and we just gave them a lot of points today. Not great; we still have five other races but clearly there was an opportunity, and we didn’t grab it.”
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Team mate Tsunoda was running in 12th when he crashed into the barrier at Turn 10 on Lap 35. The Japanese racer admitted there where “no excuses” for his mistake, before setting his sights on an improved showing at his home race in Suzuka next weekend.
“The conditions were really tricky out there today, it was difficult judging the move from inters to slicks but we went early, which meant it was super-hard to drive, but we were starting to gain time, so things were looking positive,” said Tsunoda.
Yuki Tsunoda crashed because he ‘completely misjudged the braking point’
“I was not running in the points anyway, but it was difficult conditions. I did a mistake by myself. I just completely misjudged the braking points, it’s completely my fault. No excuses.”
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He continued: “I need to go away and reflect on this weekend and then prepare for my home race next week, where I’m looking forward to driving an F1 car around Suzuka for the first time.”
AlphaTauri are now tied for eighth in the constructors’ standings with Haas but trail Aston Martin, in seventh, by just three points heading to Suzuka.
