“I was in favour” – AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly consulted with the team about starting with wet tyres at Imola, a move that almost turned out to be very costly.
AlphaTauri was billed to do great things at their home race in Imola, but it was not to be. Pierre Gasly ultimately was classified P7, with Yuki Tsunoda finishing outside the Top 10.
Gasly rued the decision to start on wet tyres, which saw the AlphaTauri slip places after places to the bottom of the track. After switching to slicks thereafter, the Frenchman did well to do a fair few overtakes and move back into the Top 10.
“For sure it wasn’t a great afternoon for us. Honestly, very very difficult.
“We decided to start with the wets – I was in favour, the team was in favour, we thought we would try and in the end it turned out we were the only one out there [on wets], there was no grip at all and we were extremely slow.
“I think at some point we were last in the race so starting P5, that was clearly not what we expected and wanted. After the restart I think I was P14 and tried to come back and use the pace of the car in the dry, and we had a couple of battles and managed to save a couple of points.”
“I think we have a car which can give us the opportunity to fight in the mix for the points in the coming races and we will have to make sure we do the right things.”
