Pierre Gasly found the aggression in F1 Singapore GP a bit too much from Kevin Magnussen, but he has overlooked it considering the result.
The F1 Singapore GP weekend didn’t start off well for Alpine’s Gasly but he did well enough in qualifying to be in Q2. At the start, he gained places and eventually positioned himself well inside the Top 10 for points behind teammate Esteban Ocon.
Unfortunately, Ocon was forced to retire due to hydraulic issue which helped Gasly gain a place but it wasn’t without a rusty fight against Haas’ Kevin Magnussen at one point. Before ending up sixth, he had to fight him off to get inside the Top 10.
“I would have signed for that P6 on Friday,” said Gasly to media. “I think it was definitely the best we could get out of it so, very happy. It was a clean race, had quite a lot of obstacles. I would say a couple of times we were on the limit with the racing and I was definitely happy to keep my front wing clean a few times.
“But I stayed patient, I stayed calm in the car and saved the tyres when I had to save, and attack and be aggressive when I had to be and in the end it paid off. I am vrey happy with the performance,” summed up Gasly, before adding further on the fight against Magnussen which he reckoned was a bit too much but nothing happened.
The two had their moment not only at Turn 1 but also at Turn 7 run-off. Gasly felt the stewards should have looked at it but considering he finished ahead in sixth, he didn’t push for it as much. “He said it before the race, I think he said like I’m not going to make anyone’s life easy and clearly took his words as they were,” he said.
“I knew he was going to take it on the limit, it was once or twice slightly over but at the end I finished P6 so I don’t really care. I just ask if he can push someone off the race track when I’m going to pass him, I’m going to give him a little nudge and do the same. What I want is, I’m not going to open the topic.
“It’s just, make it black and white because it’s… I was pretty surprised in Singapore. I don’t fully understand the regulation. I read the regulations, I know the regulations, but then it doesn’t always translate to what happens on the track. But to be fair, in the race, it didn’t change my race.
“I got the best out of it so it was fine but a couple of times it’s just unfair to me,” summed up Gasly, as Magnussen was not to concerned about the fight while stating that he wanted to make it as hard as possible for the Frenchman and anyone against.
“I just tried as hard as I could, I wanted to make sure that there was nothing left out there and it paid off,” stated Magnussen, who eventually finished 10th to score a point thanks to late collision which dropped Alexander Albon out of points and George Russell ending up at the barrier on his own.
Gasly’s teammate Ocon was bitterly disappointed on his birthday to end up on the DNF list after battling hard and making his way up to sixth. “I’m obviously very disappointed,” he said. “These things happen in motorsport but today we broke the gearbox, we were running in a very strong position, we did everything right until then.
“We were holding onto Red Bull cars and passing them on track, fighting with Fernando, fighting with Kevin at the start. We’ve gained positions and it was amazing and we should be proud of that. Unfortunately, yes, not the best birthday today but we’ll come back stronger next week and we have a car that is performing so we should be proud of that.”
Here’s how F1 Singapore GP panned out