Pierre Gasly looks back frustrated on the recent Dutch GP. The Alpine driver saw a strong result in Zandvoort slip away because Racing Bulls deliberately held him up. Gasly lost valuable time as a result and ultimately finished tenth, earning only one World Championship point. Alpine and Racing Bulls have long been engaged in a heated rivalry for fifth place in the constructors’ championship.
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Gasly started the main race at Zandvoort from eleventh place but had a strong start and quickly climbed to P8. His first pit stop then went wrong because he ended up behind Arvid Lindblad. The Racing Bulls driver had earlier received a drive-through penalty for ignoring yellow flags and therefore was no longer in contention for points himself. For that reason, he decided to hold back rival Gasly as long as possible, which proved relatively easy on the narrow dune circuit. The Frenchman needed no less than seventeen laps to pass the F1 rookie.
Gasly warns Racing Bulls
His earlier overtaking attempts failed, causing him to lose position to Nico Hülkenberg and Yuki Tsunoda on top of that. After Gasly made his second pit stop, the latter also blocked him for ten laps. Afterwards, the Frenchman regretted missing out on good points. “Racing Bulls ruined our race halfway through,” he judged angrily. “They played a team game for the championship and did it well. I mean, it cost me a position relative to Nico (Hülkenberg, ed.) and I don’t know how many seconds of race time. Congratulations to them, and I can’t wait to race against them again,” he said challengingly.
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The Racing Bulls tactic ultimately yielded nothing for the team itself: Tsunoda and Lindblad finished eleventh and twelfth. Gasly meanwhile remained stuck in tenth place, one second behind Fernando Alonso. According to the Frenchman, without the time loss behind the Racing Bulls drivers, he could have threatened Aston Martin. “It’s just annoying, but it’s Zandvoort,” he added. “You really can’t overtake here, and that will change in the coming races. Luckily, I have a good memory, so I’m going to make sure we look back with a smile at the end of the year,” he warned the Red Bull sister team.
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