Pierre Gasly was delighted with his performance on Sunday after claiming his third points finish of the season after finishing sixth in the Hungarian Grand Prix, claiming the honour of being best of the rest behind the leading three teams in the process.
The Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda driver had started in the same position as he started and moved up to fifth in the first stint, but found himself unable to keep Daniel Ricciardo behind him as the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing driver made his way up the field following his problematic Qualifying session on Saturday.
However, the Frenchman was pleased to comfortably keep the rest of the midfield behind him, and he felt it was a nice way to end the first half of the season, with the summer break set to get underway as soon as the two-day post-race test at the Hungaroring takes place this week.
“It was an amazing day for us to finish sixth!” said Gasly. “Yesterday was already fantastic for the team, but this is even better!
“The car was mega, the strategy was fantastic, I just had to give everything I could which wasn’t easy in these conditions, in the end we managed to do it. After the past few races, which were quite difficult for us, it’s a great result for the team.
“When you’re fighting in the midfield you know there will be races where opportunities present themselves, and you just need to make sure you take them when they come. We did it in Bahrain, Monaco and again this weekend, so it’s great and it’s a nice way to end the first half of the season.”
Gasly’s opening stint was extremely strong but was aided by quickly dispatching Carlos Sainz Jr. on track, which enabled him to pull away from the chasing pack, and even pull enough gap so to stay on the lead lap, something that has been difficult to achieve for everyone not racing for Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, Scuderia Ferrari or Red Bull in 2018.
“I had a good start and managed to pass Sainz at the beginning, then I had free air to focus on my driving and make the tyres last and it ended up being a great race,” said the Frenchman.
“The main thing was not to make any mistakes; I was on the limit for seventy laps which was a challenge, but I did my best to have a clean race and push as hard as I could to take these fantastic eight points home.”
