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Friday’s Sprint Qualifying was clean and mistake free from both Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly. Esteban Ocon had struggles and could not set a fast enough time to excel into SQ2, finishing a disappointing P18, which reflects the struggles he faced in the only Free Practice session of the weekend. However, Pierre Gasly performed another impressive performance throughout Sprint Qualifying, making his way through with some hard fought battles and last lap pushes that secured him P8 for the Sprint.
Esteban Ocon:“It’s been a tough evening and we did not manage to put together a better lap to qualify higher on the grid for tomorrow’s Sprint race. We need to continue to work with the team to find more performance and understand a few things."
Pierre Gasly:“I’m happy to qualify in eighth place in Sprint Qualifying. The top four teams were very quick in the end, so I think qualifying in eighth was the best we could achieve today. We are in front of one Haas and one RB who we are in a fight with in the Championship. Tomorrow, the top eight score points so we are in the mix. As we know, the Championship is tight so I expect a fight with Haas and RB in the Sprint. We must target points and we will give everything we can.”
It was a hard blow for both Alpine drivers to face as both failed to make it into the points, Pierre Gasly finishing P9 after being passed by Max Verstappen, whereas Esteban Ocon struggled throughout the race but ended up making up places and finishing P14 in the Sprint Race. Unfortunately it was another disappointing result for Alpine as both drivers failed to advance into Q3, with Pierre Gasly Qualifying P11 and Esteban Ocon qualifying P20. Both drivers reported mixed feelings about Qualifying.
Ocon: “In Qualifying, I felt like I did a clean lap in Q1 with no mistakes but we could not progress through the session.” Ocon also said he was hoping for a similar race start as he had in the sprint, as he was confident he would be able to make up positions.
Gasly: “In the end, a day of mixed feelings for us with the Sprint Race and Qualifying. It was extremely tight out there in both sessions. We gave it our all in the Sprint and, finishing ninth, just outside the points, was probably the best we could achieve. I was not too happy with Qualifying as we missed out on Q3 by just a hundredth of a second." However, he explained that he feels confident that he can achieve a good result for the race.
Going into race day, the Alpine's goal was to continue to fight their battle for P6 in the constructors. The race start was unproblematic for Gasly as he had a clean start and avoided all the midfield drama and collisions, however his teammate Ocon could not avoid the drama and was hit by Nico Hulkenberg which then caused him to run into Franco Colapinto, ending Ocon and Colapinto’s race.
Whilst Esteban Ocon retired from the race, Pierre Gasly was sailing through the field and coped with the pressure of maintaining P6 in the constructors championship, he overtook former teammate Yuki Tsunoda who was then passed by Fernando Alonso, which proved to be important in the constructors championship battle for P6.
On lap 35 the second safety car came out, which was beneficial for Gasly as he pitted under the safety car, giving him a free pit stop. However he was not the only driver to react to the safety car as many other drivers pitted, which meant he still had to put up a good fight to keep his position on track. The race ended with Gasly finishing P5, maintaining their P6 in the constructors championship.
Esteban Ocon:“Unfortunately it was a disappointing weekend and a short race for me today in Qatar. I had a good start to the race and had passed Franco [Colapinto]; I was on the left side of Nico [Hülkenberg] but I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. It got very narrow and unfortunately, I was already on the outside when the collision occurred and our race was then over. It was a race incident and not something that we wanted today.”
Pierre Gasly: “It was an incredible race today to finish in fifth place and I’m very happy for all the team. I felt like we managed the race well right from the beginning. It was a tough start but we had the pace to stay with Kevin [Magnussen] and once he pitted it was flat out for us lap after lap. In the end, with the Safety Car, we pitted for Hards and then had to keep Carlos [Sainz] behind all the way until the chequered flag. It was certainly an enjoyable race, the car felt good, we were competitive and I was quite confident to hang on to that fifth place. We go into the final round in the fight for the Constructors’ Championship and we have to be ready for it.”
Oliver Oakes, Team Principal: “It was a well-managed and well executed race by the entire team today to score ten points in fifth place with Pierre. For Esteban he was caught in a Turn 1 incident, which was not his fault. The race was incredibly fast paced with a lot of action up and down the field. Pierre did well to stay in the pack in the hunt for points early on and then benefitted with the timing of the Safety Car, like many others, for his mandatory stop. He did an even better job to keep Carlos [Sainz] at bay for fifth place all while managing the tyres and doing some fuel saving. Importantly, we go to the season ending race in sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship with a small advantage and the target has to be to remain in that position.”
