What Happened to Pierre Gasly Today?: Horror Strikes Alpine Driver With Major Damage to Engine

Tanish Chachra | 28/04/2023
What Happened to Pierre Gasly Today?: Horror Strikes Alpine Driver With Major Damage to Engine

The very first day of Formula 1 returning to action gave a chaotic start. Pierre Gasly was one of the victims of the carnage that happened in Azerbaijan. Soon into the session, Gasly’s engine caught fire, bringing the entire grid to still.

On the other hand, Kevin Magnussen’s car also stalled. Thus, waving red flags immediately. Meanwhile, Yuki Tsunoda was also a victim of his rear tire getting burst, which certainly damaged his floor while continuing his run to his garage.

The biggest fear of everyone in the new sprint format has become a reality. The new shootout plan by F1 only allows one practice session across the weekend. So, the drivers who have been affected won’t have any time to adjust.

On top of that, in a couple of hours, there will be a qualifying session. So, the teams and drivers affected by any kind of damage would have to recover quickly to get their targets in the session that will set the course for the main race.

Pierre Gasly can’t be unlucky enough

The 27-year-old race driver reached Alpine with a lot of promise. However, his last two outings have been troublesome. His massive blunder in Australia also affected his teammate Esteban Ocon and stripped 11 points from his team.

Now that misfortune is followed by this engine failure in Azerbaijan. Nothing more could have gone wrong for the Frenchman, who transferred himself to a French team with several aspirations.

Nevertheless, the weekend is long, and Alpine could work to overcome the setback. Though, a new engine will surely come in for the 27-year-old ahead of the rest of the days in Baku.

Pierre Gasly strikes again

One could think that Gasly would have had an easier outing for the rest of the day. But no, the Alpine race driver in Q1 hit his car into the barrier. Funnily, in the same place where his successor at AlphaTauri Nyck de Vries crashed a few moments ago.

With this, his contention in the qualification is already over, and he would start the race from P18 on Sunday. The only saving grace for him could be a better performance during Saturday’s sprint race.

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Alpine Pierre Gasly

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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