Pierre Gasly was naturally disappointed with the decision to disqualify him from Saturday’s Feature race at the Hockenheimring, with the Frenchman losing a podium finish through no fault of his own.
Midway through the race, the fire extinguisher in his cockpit went off, but the stewards in Germany deemed that, as the extinguisher was empty at the end of the race, it was a safety concern, and the Prema Racing driver was disqualified from the results.
Gasly believed it was unfair to be penalised for something that he had no control over, with the disqualification also affecting his starting position for the Sprint race, where he started right at the back of the grid.
“Very frustrating and I find it quite unfair, we couldn’t do anything when the extinguisher went off by itself accidentally,” said Gasly. “So in the end we finished the race in third and it was really frustrating to lose it because it didn’t bring any performance it was just a question of safety.
“It’s quite hard to penalise the driver and not find another penalty, something else could have been better. Quite difficult to accept but that is how it is sometimes. We tried to recover as much as we could today.”
Despite starting twentieth on Sunday, Gasly drove superbly once again, proving he has truly come into form as he challenges for the title, with the Frenchman securing sixth to sit as joint leader of the championship with Sergey Sirotkin.
“A very good race today starting from the last place on the grid and finished in P6,” said Gasly. “Quite unbelievable to have come back so far and have fought with the frontrunners.
“I had really good pace and joined many battles. It’s really exciting to race on this track because there are so many places with passing opportunities. We also scored some points, not too many but from where we started I think we can be happy.”
