Pierre Gasly laments bad luck in F1 Las Vegas GP again after being spun around, as Haas pair had brake issues and lack of pace to initially miss out.
After a good qualifying show, Alpine’s Gasly hoped to secure at least a point in F1 Las Vegas GP but for not to be. A moment for Liam Lawson along with Gabriel Bortoleto meant, the Frenchman was spun around at Turn 1 which pretty much sealed his fate in the grand prix.
Even though he managed to continue on, he was mostly at the back of the field with not enough pace to stage a comeback. It was another heartbreak in Las Vegas, especially after looking to be in a good space early on in the weekend. “Just got spun around and my diffuser got smashed at the back,” said Gasly.
“A long f**king flight to end up spun around on Saturday and get another, yeah, unlucky race in Vegas for me. It’s been three years, three, three years in a row where I have very strong quali and it doesn’t really translate into the race. So yeah, it’s a bit disappointing, but yeah, that’s the way it is. For a few meters, yeah.
“I mean, yeah, honestly, it’s just one of those which…got into Turn 1, I was cornering and then I just got hit from the back and spun, went back and, I mean, already from the start, like our cars got huge downforce on it. So if on top of that, you get damaged, it’s just, been quite a long, a long afternoon. So, it’s, yeah, honestly, I’d like to tell you more things.
“It’s just been a pretty shit day,” summed up Gasly, who thought that the rookie situation did play a role in the incidents, especially in a tricky corner like at Turn 1 on Lap 1. “I think if you look at it, I mean, I haven’t real…I don’t know exactly what happened with Lawson, but yeah, obviously Bortoleto made a pretty big misjudgment there and it was Liam also, hit Piastri,” he said.
“So, yeah, two guys with not much experience and I mean, we know it’s a tricky one from the past few years. Turn 1 is very tricky, but then you obviously need to consider that and yeah, I think clearly qualifying was a good display of driving skills, Turn 1, not really in the race,” summed up Gasly, who gained couple of places due to McLaren disqualification but it was still not enough for points.
The Haas pair, however, made it into points eventually. Esteban Ocon finished 11th from teammate Oliver Bearman originally. But the DQ helped them to secure double points, with the Frenchman ninth ahead of the Brit. They were marred by lack of pace and brake issues throughout.
Ocon called it a weakness which has been a problem historically. Aside that, the Frenchman was ever close to getting Lewis Hamilton, but didn’t have enough time left on the table. “No, but there wasn’t much more in it in the race, unfortunately,” he said to media. “I think that was the pace we had unfortunately, and yeah, I mean, we did good to stay alive after the start.
“I was on the wrong side, couldn’t really catch back into the inside and basically everybody crashed in the middle there, and it was quite good, for us to be able to avoid that. After that, I mean we were fighting with Lewis really until the end, maybe five more laps I would have been able to fight with him potentially, but yeah, effectively we had a little bit of pace missing, especially on braking.
“I think the straight line speed was pretty good. We were able to fight, but yeah, it was quite a, a lonely race from that hard onwards. I think that’s [brakes] our weakness for quite a few events now, something we need to be working on and improve. As soon as I wanted to push a bit harder to get a bit closer to Lewis, I locked up, lost a couple of tenths.
“That was what prevented us from getting inside the second to get DRS. So, yeah, it’s a shame because, it feels like we’ve done the maximum in the race, but it’s not really rewarding, so it’s a bit disappointing on that side, but I think that race was quite positive for us,” summed up Ocon. Teammate Bearman too had issues on the brakes side, but he also got his aero map wrong which hurt his balance.
He admitted that he took a wrong call with the aero balance for his second stint and he paid the price for it. The lack of degradation didn’t help either. “Yeah, exactly, I think we just missed out on better pace,” said Ocon to media. “The Lap 1 was very good and I managed to muscle my way up into seventh, I think, after Lawson’s damage.
“So, we were looking to be in a good spot, just didn’t quite have the pace, particularly on the first stint. I was really struggling with the balance. The low speed was really all over the place. And the car, it was too easy to do mistakes, when I had all that pressure from behind, I just couldn’t lean on the car, couldn’t find confidence with it.
“And also it kind of clouded my view of the balance for the second stint, so I didn’t do the right call on aero balance for the second stint. And then I had a bit of front graining at the end. I was not expecting that [lack of degradation], none of us were, I think, heading into the race. The amount of graining compared to last year was 1% of what they had last year.
“The setup direction we chose and even the aero balance direction we chose was towards protecting the front axle. And when the fronts don’t die, then you suddenly have yourself a really tricky car to drive. So, I was really struggling to find the correct way to push the car that we had. And definitely I had a lot less confidence in it than I had had in the previous three or four races,” summed up Bearman.
Here’s race start: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-formula-1-las-vegas-gp-verstappen-seizes-lead-as-norris-runs-wide-in-dramatic-start.1849555190074067783
Here’s Liam Lawson on incident
Here’s Gabriel Bortoleto on incident