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BWT Alpine F1 Team scored six points at the Qatar Airways Grand Prix on Sunday 8th October as Esteban Ocon finished in seventh place. Pierre Gasly was on track to also take home some points but fell short of the top ten after a series of penalties for track limit infringements.
The 57-lap race was physically taxing with both drivers taking three pit-stops during the race. Ocon pushed hard to move from starting in P8 to P5 whilst Gasly maintained his P7 position for much of the race. They then settled into a rhythm with the end goal of achieving double points which wasn’t to be achieved in the end as Gasly received three separate penalties for track limit infringements as he fought for the top ten. He eventually fell into twelfth place as a result.
Ocon said: “What a tough and physically difficult race for all of us! In the end, it was a great result for us in seventh place and six points in the bag. We had a great start to move up to fifth and credit to the team too for a well-executed strategy and pit stops. The conditions were extremely tough in the car and I did not feel well physically in the first half of the race. I was able to pull it together and focus on what I needed to do. We had a couple of good overtakes along the way and we brought home six valuable points for the team.”
Gasly added: “There was potential to score points today so, of course, I am disappointed in how the race played out. It was not a good day, it’s a matter of centimetres on track limits - that is on me, though - and today I paid a big price for it. It’s frustrating as we definitely had the pace to score solid points for the team. We had a small energy management issue to manage during the race, which cost me some pace. I probably tried to take too many risks and overcompensate for that and pushed too close to the limit. I’ll learn from it and move on.”
The team now looks ahead to the Untied States Grand Prix on Sunday October 22nd at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
