“It’s the best day of my life”- Pierre Gasly on receiving a special memento on Christmas, reminiscing his glorious Monza Grand Prix win.
Pierre Gasly with Alpha Tauri had a great year, where he constantly challenged the midtable teams with his performances on the track. Things peaked for him when he registered his first career F1 win in Monza Grand Prix.
It was history in the making, as nobody in their wildest dreams expected Gasly to show that kind of performance. But ultimately, it was his day, even France’s President Emmanuel Macron called to congratulated Gasly, which the latter apparently missed.
But before that Gasly had another brilliant day, when he secured his career podium in F1 by grabbing a P2 in the Brazilian Grand Prix, the achievement at least subtly made him boast his bosses at Red Bull, who relegated him back to Toro Rosso.
Gasly this Christmas week reminisced when he received a painting of that moment, made by famous French artist Remi Bertoche, which the F1 driver even published on his social media.
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Reflecting on that memorable moment, Gasly said after the race: “It’s the best day of my life. As a kid, you dream of being in F1 and when it happens, it becomes the best day of your life. Then you dream of your first podium.”
“When I came back to Toro Rosso, I just kept working on myself, I tried to push the team as much as much as I could, and I’ve been careful to make the best of all my opportunities.”
“Today just came to us, and we had a strong race before that. All weekend the car has felt good, and I was controlling the gap to the guys behind,” he added.
“When we started to battle first with the Ferrari, I thought okay, this looks similar to Bahrain 2018 when we took P4. Then it was quite an intense finish and incredible to get my first podium in F1.”
Still remembers the day.
Pierre Gasly is still aware of that day when he unexpectedly cruised past the big guns, the French superstar even after a series of professional setbacks managed to pull himself to give this performance was commendable itself.
“It was intense. With my first podium [in reach] I have a world champion pushing me to the limit. I tried to defend in the best way I could, trying to go flat-out and hope the engine gives you every single horsepower.
“I was pressing the overtake button. I could see his front wing, and I thought, please don’t pass me on the line. I would have been pissed off if he did. I really wanted to keep that second place.”