AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly says he was “pushing like an animal” during the British Grand Prix before his quest for points ended due to a puncture.
AlphaTauri struggled for performance throughout the weekend at Silverstone, with Gasly lining up only 12th, but he recovered into the top 10 during the race.
However a left-rear puncture in the closing stages necessitated an unscheduled stop and Gasly had to relinquish ninth place.
“Honestly… this weekend was clearly the hardest weekend of the season, we didn’t get it right from the start,” he said.
“Even on a difficult day I was pushing like an animal and we managed to make it to the top 10, I passed Esteban [Ocon] to get P9.
“I was saving the tyre first 10 laps and started to push at the end to get Lance [Stroll], I think we had a bit more potential than them.
“I don’t know who put gravel outside of Turn 7 but I went through there, and got a puncture and had to do the stop, lost 20s five laps to the end, put us from P9 down to P14 and the race was over.
“I’m disappointed as even in a tough weekend we deserved these two points.”
Gasly suggested the revised format, with only one practice session prior to qualifying, accentuated AlphaTauri’s plight, and is optimistic of a return to form in Hungary.
“Clearly this weekend we were far away from the Ferrari and McLaren, even slightly behind Alpine and Aston Martin, and we know that we have a bit more pace than that,” he said.
“So I think [the issues were] the format plus track specific so I believe in Budapest we should be back similar to where we were before.”
