Pierre Gasly (Alpine): “I thought it was going to snow in Madrid”

Following the first practice sessions at the new “Madring” circuit in Madrid, drivers and team principals joked that the strategy of choice for the race might be a ‘six-stopper’ – in other words, a race with six tyre changes – because the tyres were wearing out so badly. The six-stop strategy – a bit of an exaggeration and a joke, of course. But at the start of the race weekend, the Madring looked like a tyre-wearing circuit. Then, during the race, things suddenly looked completely different. Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli won with just one stop.

The majority of drivers made just the one mandatory pit stop. And Alpine driver Pierre Gasly proved that the tyres can certainly last on the Madring: the Frenchman drove on the same set of hard tyres until lap 55 of 57, coming in very shortly before the end to make his mandatory pit stop. Because he was so far behind, he even drove just one lap on the softs, as he was a lap down and only completed 56 laps in total. He finished 12th.

Gasly was driving as if on ice

Gasly quipped after the race: “At one point I thought it was going to snow in Madrid. In the end, it really was like driving on ice.” That’s how badly his tyres had suffered by the end of the race. Gasly: “But I remember the good pace in the middle of the race.” Gasly was setting a good pace then. There was a brief virtual safety car period when Lance Stroll inadvertently parked his Aston Martin in Turn 20 due to brake problems. That was on lap 14; shortly afterwards, the VSC was in place for just under a lap. Many drivers came in for a tyre change – but not Pierre Gasly.

Gasly: “We lost 15 seconds to the other drivers because of the VSC, but I think we made up a second per lap, so the pace was very, very high – it’s just a shame we couldn’t turn that into points. We tried something in the race that didn’t work out.’ Namely, to push on and wait for an interruption that would spare him a pit stop.

After the VSC phase, the Alpine driver was able to keep up really well. Gasly: “The pace was mad after the VSC. So that was very positive. But it’s a shame that, overall, we missed the opportunity.”

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Spanish Grand Prix at the new Madring: track – hit or miss?

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Things had already gone pear-shaped for Gasly and Alpine on Saturday during qualifying. The Frenchman said: “We approached the warm-up in qualifying completely wrong. We didn’t have a first attempt because a double yellow flag was waved at Turn 12, and on the final run we probably messed up with the tyres and had no grip. That’s definitely something we need to improve for Baku.” The race takes place there next week.