Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda Team Principal Franz Tost was quick to congratulate his team after an incredible Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which saw Pierre Gasly step onto the podium in third and Yuki Tsunoda finish seventh.
Gasly and Tsunoda both started the race in the top ten and remained there throughout, even though Gasly had to manage a slight engine problem resulting in a loss of power. Both raced out of their skin, with Gasly adding another podium to his steadily growing collection and Tsunoda finishing in his highest position yet.
This sets the team up very nicely for the remainder of the season, with some very good points gained for their constructors tally. Team principal Tost is very proud of his team, but is also quick to congratulate Red Bull Racing, Honda and Max Verstappen, who had the race stolen from him in cruel fashion.
“It was a sensational race from the very beginning,” said Tost. “I want to say congratulations to Red Bull Racing, Honda and [Sergio] Pérez today, it was a fantastic victory. Unfortunately, Max who was leading and was in my opinion the fastest man on the track, lost it at the very last minute of a great race from his side. However, the important thing is that he still leads the Championship.
“As for us, we started with Pierre in fourth position, which was already a great starting place, and Yuki wasn’t far behind in seventh. Both drivers had a good start and Pierre defended P4 for a long period, even whilst managing a small PU issue, but unfortunately lost time behind [Lance] Stroll and that allowed [Sebastian] Vettel to catch-up and overtake Pierre after the pitstop. At the restart, we changed from the Hards to the Softs and Pierre completed a really good manoeuvre against [Charles] Leclerc to put himself into third position.
“It’s an unbelievable result and both the team and Pierre deserve it, as we were very competitive here from FP1 onwards. Yuki started from P7 and only lost one place to [Fernando] Alonso on the first lap but managed to regain the position later. After the red flag, Yuki started from sixth position but lost two places during those last few laps.
“Nonetheless, he finished in a fantastic seventh place and the team scored some great points this weekend, meaning we’re now fifth in the Constructors’ Championship. The guys did a really good job today on all sides, from the pitstops to the strategy, and they deserve this result. Congratulations to the whole Scuderia AlphaTauri team and I hope we can continue this performance in the upcoming races.”
