Pierre Gasly said he enjoyed his Singapore Grand Prix as the Frenchman claimed an excellent eighth place finish on Sunday at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
The Scuderia Toro Rosso driver ran as high as second for a handful of laps as the front runners pitted before he did, with Gasly revealing that he had not known that he had been so far up the order.
“I enjoyed that race so much!” said Gasly. “Things didn’t really come all together with the timing of the first safety car, but the last part of the race was really exciting.
“The beginning went pretty well for us, and I didn’t know it at the time, but we were running in P2 for a couple of laps before our pitstop, and that was cool! Then, when the safety car came out, we lost three or four positions which was a bit annoying.”
He pitted just before the safety car was deployed for the first time, much to his disappointment, but he made good gains in the second half of the race, with Gasly enjoying the battles with the likes of Kimi Räikkönen, Kevin Magnussen and Lance Stroll.
However, in just three races since returning to Toro Rosso, Gasly has scored points in two of them, with the Frenchman still hanging on to his sixth place in the Drivers’ Championship heading into next weekend’s Russian Grand Prix.
“I gave it everything I had to pass Kimi and had a couple of exciting battles with Kevin and Lance, so it feels very good to score these points,” said Gasly. “It was a tough race, but a great result for the team in the Championship battle, as it’s quite close.
“I’m really happy with the way we’re working as a team, every weekend it gets better and we make a step forward, so we just need to keep pushing in the same direction for the next few races.”
