(Motorsport-Total.com) – Pierre Gasly criticized Racing Bulls for the team’s race strategy after the Dutch Grand Prix. The Alpine driver was held up for several laps by the two Racing Bulls drivers in Zandvoort and blamed the team’s tactics for his result.
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Gasly initially showed good form in Zandvoort. In the sprint, he qualified in eighth place and then also finished eighth. This made him the “Best of the Rest” behind the dominant McLaren, Red Bull, and Ferrari. However, for the Grand Prix on Sunday, he had to start from eleventh place.
Gasly gains positions after strong start
Thanks to a strong start at the Grand Prix, Gasly quickly moved up to eighth place. After his first pit stop, however, he fell behind Arvid Lindblad in the Racing Bulls. Gasly was stuck behind Lindblad for seven laps. An overtaking attempt on the outside in turn 11 failed after the Alpine driver braked too late and had to let Nico Hülkenberg pass. Behind Gasly was now Yuki Tsunoda.
Hülkenberg then had significantly less trouble overtaking Lindblad. Gasly, on the other hand, remained stuck behind Lindblad’s Racing Bulls until Tsunoda overtook him in turn 7. Lindblad let his teammate pass without any problems, as expected. It took a total of 17 laps before Gasly finally got past Lindblad.
Tsunoda also holds up Gasly
Even after his second pit stop, Gasly was again held up by a Racing Bulls driver. This time Tsunoda was ahead of him, and the Alpine driver needed another ten laps to overtake the Japanese driver.
Gasly then did not hide his frustration about the situation: “VCARB ruined our race in the middle of the race, they played a team game for the championship and did it well,” says Gasly. “I lost a position to Nico and Tsunoda because of that and don’t know how many seconds of race time. Congratulations to them, and I can’t wait to race against them.”
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Racing Bulls themselves do not benefit from the strategy
However, the strategy had no direct sporting benefit for Racing Bulls. The team remained without points, Tsunoda and Lindblad finished eleventh and twelfth. Gasly, on the other hand, believed that the situation cost him at least ninth place.
Zandvoort: Driver ratings by Marc Surer and the editorial team
The Frenchman finished about one second behind Fernando Alonso. According to his assessment, he lost about four seconds behind Lindblad despite new tires compared to the Aston Martin driver. The additional time loss behind Tsunoda then made it harder for Gasly to catch Alonso. The Spaniard had only made one pit stop, finished his race in ninth place, and thus collected two points for Aston Martin.
Gasly announces revenge on other tracks
Gasly remains confident that the situation will not repeat itself on other tracks. “It’s just frustrating, but it’s Zandvoort,” explains the Alpine driver. “You really can’t overtake here, and that will change on the upcoming tracks. And the good thing is that I have a good memory. So I will make sure that we are laughing at the end of the year.”
Lindblad himself is unimpressed by Gasly’s criticism and reacts calmly. “In the end, I played the team game. If he has a good memory, then that’s fine. In the end, we fight as hard as possible every weekend. I tried to help the team where I could. The reality was that my race was basically already over. So I did what I could to help the team,” says Lindblad.
In the fight for fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship, Racing Bulls and Alpine remain close. Racing Bulls stands at 66 points after the race in Zandvoort, Alpine follows with 63 points.
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