Pierre Gasly says the whole F1 Abu Dhabi GP was about holding off Haas as much, while Jack Doohan reveals of sore thumb in an expected tale.
Luck was with Alpine and Gasly in F1 Abu Dhabi GP when Haas and Nico Hulkenberg were handed a grid drop and the German was forced to start behind the Frenchman as a result. Both escaped any dramas on Lap 1, but crucially the Alpine driver was ahead of the Haas man.
Gasly had the buffer of Mercedes’ George Russell in between him and Hulkenberg. Despite attempts from the Brit, he couldn’t get through allowing the Alpine driver to hold the position ahead of the German. He did so for whole of the grand prix where they both lost places to faster cars.
Gasly made no mistakes to end up seventh ahead of Hulkenberg. By doing so, not just sixth in constructors’ was set, the Frenchman also pipped the German to 10th in the drivers’ standings. “No, I was in third, obviously I had George between me and Nico, it was better to keep him there,” he said.
“He wasn’t too keen on staying behind me, so I had to fight him quite hard. And then after Lewis and Charles were faster than me, I knew the target was Haas and Nico, the entire race we were two seconds like keeping a lot of pressure. So, I couldn’t afford to do a mistake and even with the tyre really, trying to keep them until the end of the race which was very tough.
“He did a very long stint on hard, but we made it up. We’ll see. He’s [Flavio] going to like it [no damage stat]. Also, the 10 million euros that I got them [by helping to finish sixth],” summed up Gasly. The no damage stat has had its naysayers, who noted about some incidents earlier in the season.
It was caused by rivals but Gasly did suffer damage, however, minor they were. It is unlikely that the damage would be absolute zero, but the amount would be way less than most others on the grid. Teammate Doohan, meanwhile, got through his first weekend unscathed as well.
He took a slower approach where the target was to keep Haas’ Kevin Magnussen behind and hold up Hulkenberg whenever possible. He did so duly. The biggest learning he had was how to use the tyres and interestingly, he had sore thumb by the end of the grand prix which made it difficult to press buttons.
“I am super grateful for every lap, for the experience, and super grateful for the team,” said Doohan to media. “It was great that we ended up getting P6 in the constructors’ and Pierre P10 in the drivers’ standings is a great result from his side. There is learning to be done on the hard tyre. I am happy to finish in the same pace as others on the same strategy towards the end of the race.
“I am grateful that I stayed out trouble [on Lap 1]. Ideally I would have liked to have taken the advantage of the chaos a little bit more. But my goal was to stay out of trouble and stay clean, not have any damage, not get any puncture. We did so and took the first medium tyre quite a long way and good experience before 2025.
“My objective was just to finish ahead of Haas and KMAG, try and slow up Hulk when he’s coming back through if possible. And to assist the team in P6, I don’t know how much I slowed up Hulk, I tried to do that. To be honest, he caught up with me on the straight, I would have preferred a bit more Sector 3 situation where I could have slowed it down a little bit more but nevertheless a lot of experience, even if it was half a second, it was fine.
“My thumbs were harder. They weren’t really working too well at the end of the race, to be honest. That was weird, something that I wasn’t expecting. Easier? My nerves. They were less than I was expected. The team, to be honest, made it so seamless. Super thankful to the whole Alpine academy, the TPC, the test team, Luca de Meo, Flavio, Oli for this opportunity and for all they did to prepare me for this race,” summed up Doohan.
Here’s how F1 Abu Dhabi GP panned out
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