Pierre Gasly called his fourth place at the British Grand Prix his “best Sunday” of the 2019 Formula 1 season, but says the “little details” need improvement for a maiden podium.
Gasly enjoyed a strong British GP weekend at Silverstone, finishing ahead of Max Verstappen in all three Free Practice sessions and only qualifying 0.314 seconds behind the Dutchman.
Verstappen was let through by Gasly in the second half of the race to let the former successfully chase down Sebastian Vettel, but the Scuderia Ferrari driver’s contact with Verstappen at Club corner allowed Gasly back past and into fourth position.
The Frenchman said that Red Bull Racing should be in contention with Mercedes AMG Motorsport and Ferrari, making the team’s British GP pace a pleasing takeaway from the weekend.
In the first 10 laps of the race, the top six were separated by just eight seconds.
“This whole weekend has been strong from Friday to Sunday, with today being my best Sunday of the year,” said Gasly.
“We’re fighting with the guys at the front which is where we should be and I’m really happy with fourth today.
“Of course as a competitive guy I’m disappointed not to get on the podium as it was so close but we’ve made a big step this weekend and we’re working in the right direction.
“I had some good battles with Seb and Charles and there was quite a lot of action throughout the race.”
The British GP marked Gasly’s first fourth place finish since the 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix, when he was driving for Scuderia Toro Rosso, and admits that he needs to refine and improve the “little details” in his performance in order to claim a first F1 podium finish.
“I still need to work on the little details to improve and make the last step on to the podium, but overall we are not too far away and we will keep pushing,” he added.
“If we can have this kind of Sunday every weekend, then things should be exciting.”
