Pierre Gasly admitted to being disappointed with finishing only tenth in Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix, with the Frenchman feeling he missed out on a potential top five finish by pitting too early for slick tyres.
The Scuderia AlphaTauri driver had been just behind McLaren F1 Team’s Lando Norris in the opening phase of the race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit but was one of the first to pit for Pirelli’s medium compound, and the time lost compared to some of his main rivals meant he slipped behind them.
Whereas Norris was able to move up the order and finish fourth, the second McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo and both Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team drivers edged ahead, and he was left with only one point to his name come the chequered flag.
“I’m very disappointed today, that’s not the result we should’ve had,” said Gasly. “We were having an excellent race, behind Lando and ahead of the two Aston Martins, but we took a massive risk boxing early and lost some positions.
“I don’t fully understand why we made this decision, so we’ll need to review everything and learn from this mistake.
“For sure we left a lot of points on the table today, so it hurts quite a bit, particularly in our Championship battle fight as there was a big opportunity there today to move forward and we didn’t grab it.”
“I completely misjudged the braking point” – Yuki Tsunoda
Team-mate Yuki Tsunoda failed to see the chequered flag after crashing out on lap thirty-five, with the incident necessitating the need for the safety car.
The Japanese racer had just made the switch to slick tyres but pushed too hard heading into turn ten and hit the barriers hard, ending his race there and then.
Tsunoda took responsibility for the crash, admitting he misjudged his braking point heading into the turn, and he said it was particularly frustrating as he was beginning to find lap time on his fresh tyres.
“The conditions were really tricky out there today, it was difficult judging the move from Inters to slicks but we went early, which meant it was super hard to drive, but we were starting to gain time, so things were looking positive,” said Tsunoda.
“Unfortunately, I made a mistake, I completely misjudged the braking point, carrying too much speed into the corner, and went into the wall, so I’m frustrated with myself.
“I need to go away and reflect on this weekend and then prepare for my home race next week, where I’m looking forward to driving an F1 car around Suzuka for the first time.”
