Pierre Gasly came away with a surprise podium at a highly chaotic Dutch GP which saw drivers trying to make the best of mixed conditions. For the first time in quite a while, the Alpine driver had almost everything going quite smoothly except for one instance at the start of the race when Gasly was pushed wide by the charging Red Bull of Max Verstappen. However, during the post-race press conference, Gasly revealed that he doesn’t really care about the incident too much, except if $260,000,000 worth Fernando Alonso decides to pay Gasly.
The incident between Gasly and Verstappen was the result of a rare error in judgment by Red Bull when they chose to leave Verstappen out in the rain for too long on dry tires. This meant that after putting on the inters, Verstappen emerged from the pits in a net P4, behind Perez, Zhou, and Gasly who had already gone on to the inters one lap earlier.
This meant that the Dutchman was forced to charge through the field and he did so quite aggressively. By the start of lap seven, Verstappen had already closed his gap with Gasly and the reigning World champion set up a move in turn three, taking the inside out, trying to overtake the Alpine.
However, the poor conditions caused him to understeer and Gasly was pushed off the track completely. Even though the move seemed a bit sketchy, no investigation was deemed necessary and both the drivers continued on. Gasly went on to finish P3, behind Alonso and Verstappen.
Pierre Gasly does not really care about his incident until a payment is made
Following the race, Gasly joined the other podium finishers for the post race press conference where he was asked by Kevin Scheuren of motorsport-total.com about his wheel to wheel battle with Verstappen. Gasly replied, “I think I’ve I finished more than five seconds behind Max. So it doesn’t really matter to me.”
THE HOME HERO 🎉🇳🇱
A dramatic #DutchGP comes to a close and it’s a THIRD home race victory in-a-row for Max Verstappen.
He holds off the challenge of Alonso in P2. A penalty for Perez moves Gasly up to P3. pic.twitter.com/8IfgEw0Jgv
— Motorsport.com (@Motorsport) August 27, 2023
He made it clear that even if he protests the decision and Verstappen gets a time penalty, Gasly won’t benefit from it too much. But someone who will benefit is Fernando Alonso. Gasly joked, “Depends how much Fernando pays me. Then we can discuss how much you’re willing to give!”
Alonso finished the race in P2, 3.7 seconds behind Verstappen. If a 5 second penalty does come Verstappen’s way, it would mean that Alonso would finally be able achieve his much desired ’33rd’. However, for that to happen, Alonso seemingly needs to make a payment to Gasly.
Alpine’s renovation seems to be working
The Dutch GP was the first race for Alpine after they made widespread changes to their leadership hierarchy, getting rid of team principal Otmar Szafnauer and sporting director Alan Permane. It was all part of a major renovation process that the team is going through. Hence a result like their Dutch GP P2 must have motivated them greatly.
The Enstone-based outfit is currently down in P6 with 73 points, 38 points behind McLaren in P5. However, catching up with McLaren will not be an easy task considering the improvements that the papaya team has shown in the recent races. However, the podium will give Alpine hope that they are headed in the right direction.
