Pierre Gasly hopes his P7 in Japan will provide “good motivation” for everyone at Alpine after a “long, intense race” in which he kept Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at bay, saying the Dutchman “would not leave my heels all the way through.”
The result at Suzuka, after a challenging weekend, saw Gasly top the midfield and move to eighth in the Drivers’ Championship — a solid return from the first three rounds. Alpine, after promising pre-season testing, struggled early with just one point from Melbourne (P10), but a P6 in Shanghai and P7 in Japan show clear progress compared with last season.
Gasly had to work hard, duelling with his former team-mate Verstappen for much of the race. Verstappen got past once, but Gasly fought back to reclaim his position. “I’m very happy. It was a long, intense race, especially after the Safety Car,” he said. “The first part of the race was good, I felt comfortable, a bit of a gap to [Verstappen] but I knew there would always be a Safety Car at some point so I wasn’t getting too comfortable.
“[The] second part of the race this guy would not leave my heels all the way through! I had to check on him five times a lap just to understand exactly the gap and make sure I was pushing as hard as I could, make sure not to make any mistakes, really nail all my exits to not get too close.”
Gasly noted the team pace was encouraging: they finished only seven seconds behind Lewis Hamilton and 18 seconds ahead of Liam Lawson in P9, suggesting Alpine were in the stronger midfield train. He said the result should provide optimism: “We clearly have a good package, and I’m glad we managed to get a good [result] at all three tracks that are very different.”
The midfield battle promises to remain tight. Haas sit fourth in the Constructors’ standings, two points ahead of Alpine; Red Bull are level with Alpine on points; Racing Bulls are two points further back. Gasly acknowledged the gap to the leaders remains large but not insurmountable: “The gap to the guys ahead is too big to fight, but it is not too big to make it impossible. So [it is] important we keep working on it and I’m looking forward to the next few race weekends.”
He will be at the factory in the coming weeks, hoping the Suzuka performance boosts morale and momentum across the team.