Pierre Gasly recorded the fourth podium of his F1 career at the Dutch GP (Photo: Getty)
Pierre Gasly says it is ‘very satisfying’ to end his two-year podium drought after an incredibly frustrating start to this season.
The French Formula One star started Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix from 12th on the grid and it seemed as if it would be a real fight just to score points.
But thanks to the rain and some smart strategy calls, he was able to propel himself up the order and when the red flag came out with just a few laps remaining he found himself in fourth.
And with Sergio Perez ahead of him receiving a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit-lane, all Gasly had to do to was stay within touching distance of the Red Bull when the race restarted.
The third-place finish was only the fourth podium of the 27-year-old’s career, and the first with Alpine whom he joined at the start of this year, with a jubilant Gasly screaming: ‘Let’s f***ing go!’ on his team radio as he took the chequered flag.
Pos-race he added: ‘I’m feeling so stoked, honestly. What a race, coming back from the summer break and, you know, it hasn’t been the easiest start of the year, just trying to improve race by race and it was good to get some time off, come back and straight into it.
‘We had a third place in Spa [Belgium] in the Sprint, it wasn’t exactly like a normal podium and I’m super pleased for all the guys to get that P3.
Gasly was joined on the podium by Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso (Photo: Getty)
‘I was pretty upset that I got a five second penalty earlier in the race and I was like “OK, now it’s 1-1”, and then, yeah, obviously I tried to push as hard as I could to stay within five seconds, and managed to do it.
‘It was a very long race. Very challenging from start to finish and it was greatly executed from all the guys.’
After an impressive 2022, Alpine have regressed in 2023, falling behind Aston Martin and McLaren in the pecking order, though they have now picked up two podiums courtesy of Gasly in Zandvoort and Esteban Ocon in Monaco.
Prior to last weekend, Gasly had scored just two points over the last six races, with the poor results leading to the shock sacking of team principal Otmar Szafnauer and sporting director Alan Permane just before the summer break.
Gasly mastered the tricky conditions at Zandvoort (Photo: Getty)
‘It’s obviously very satisfying when you get a reward for the work that we’re all putting in in the team. I think objectively, you’ve got to look at the package that you’ve got,’ Gasly added, discussing his team’s struggles this season.
‘I think this year we came close in Monaco, running in third position and it was clearly a missed opportunity, with the, sort of, extra stop, which wasn’t necessary.
‘But no, it’s a sort of season where you’ve just got to keep trying, just keep trying again and again and there’s going to be a point where things are going to click and today it did, and it was probably the most challenging race of the year.
‘There were a lot of obstacles. There were many moments where we could have got it wrong.
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‘But as a team, we just tried to maximise that and that’s why I’m really pleased and I’m really proud of the team, because we haven’t been really fortunate but you’ve got to keep trying and keep looking at yourself and seeing the areas where you can improve.
‘And that’s what we’ve been doing. And I hope we can build up from there with the guys.’
Gasly will be hoping for another incredible result at this weekend’s race In Italy, the venue where three years ago he took his shock maiden F1 win.
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A huge result for the Alpine driver.
