Pierre Gasly blamed his former teammate and close friend, Yuki Tsunoda, for his crash in the Monaco Grand Prix earlier last week. Gasly claimed the Red Bull driver, who was defending his 17th position on the grid, had moved under braking.
The French team was running a difficult race after both their drivers failed to qualify within the top 10. However, an early pit stop in the race gave Gasly the opportunity to fight with Red Bull Racing’s Yuki Tsunoda. As both drivers closed up on each other, Gasly attempted a dive down from the outside of the Nouvelle Chicane, right out of the tunnel. Yuki closed the space, resulting in a collision which saw the Frenchman’s race come to an early end.
While it appeared to be a racing incident, Pierre Gasly blamed it on Yuki Tsunoda. The French driver felt that Tsunoda had moved under braking.
“Every lap he was braking on the racing line on the right,” Gasly said (via Motorsport). “This lap I was very close, so I decided to stay on the left. He started braking on the left, I committed to the right and then he moved back onto the racing line. I was already committing and braking later than him, so I just couldn’t go anywhere.”
The Frenchman further added,
“You can defend the position, but then it’s not a case of ‘I go right, I close the door to the right and then if you try to go left, I squeeze you to the left as well’. It’s a track where it’s already hard enough. I just thought, ‘he’ll leave the space’,” he added.
Although the crash hampered any chances of a competitive finish, Alpine hadn’t been in good shape throughout the weekend, with Gasly qualifying in P18 and his teammate, Franco Colapinto, at the back of the grid.
Pierre Gasly points out issues with Alpine in Monaco, expects improvement in Spain
Discussing the race and the pace the team carried, Pierre Gasly explained that the team currently lacks the pace on circuits with slow corners, and hence the poor performance in Monaco. Interestingly, Charles Leclerc also mentioned something similar about Ferrari. However, the Monegasque did go on to impress and earn a P2 finish.
Talking about Alpine’s improvements, Gasly stated:
“The ride in general, we know, is not the strength of our car. It’s on a track like this where you’re going very low speed, you go over kerbs, you’re three-wheeling in many places. We’re just lacking compliance at the moment,” he said.
However, heading into Spain for the final race of the current triple-header, Gasly expects a better weekend.
“I think Barcelona should be better. It’s more high-speed corners. It’s a smoother track surface, so I think it should be better.”
Alpine currently sits in ninth place in the championship with just seven points in their bag. The team has been going through several changes, the major being replacing Jack Doohan with Franco Colapinto for five races.
