Gasly reflects on ‘frustrating’ result in Austria as Colapinto explains Piastri ‘blind spot’ moment

Pierre Gasly endured a "long" and "frustrating" Austrian Grand Prix as the Alpine driver was unable to capitalise on a strong start, coming home 13th while team mate Franco Colapinto finished two places further back.

With Gasly running sixth at the end of the opening lap in Spielberg, there were high hopes for a significant number of points for Alpine. However, after starting on the soft tyres, the Frenchman was forced into an early pit stop – with his race unravelling afterwards.

Calling it “a very disappointing afternoon,” Gasly was unable to explain why he then could not extract much pace from either the hard or medium compound tyres on Sunday, despite the majority of the teams going well on those compounds.

“We have a lot to understand and analyse as I just felt a lack of grip all race and really struggled across all the stints,” Gasly said.

“I am not sure why, maybe some damage to the car, maybe not, but we need to review this one in detail as it was a very long afternoon and a frustrating outcome.

“We had a very good start, up to sixth place at the end of the first lap. After that, there is not much to say other than it being a difficult race.

"We move onto Silverstone straight away now for the home race of Enstone. It is always a fantastic event and one I look forward to going to, this time aiming to bounce back from this tough weekend.”

Gasly wasn’t the only frustrated Alpine driver at the end of a hot race in Austria, with Colapinto also enduring a long afternoon. He was tagged into a spin by Yuki Tsunoda at one point, and then picked up a five-second penalty for forcing Oscar Piastri off the track.

“I had the incident with Tsunoda at Turn 4, which set us back a bit and lost us some time,” said Colapinto. "Yuki came to me and said sorry afterwards, but it's a pity as the car felt different following the contact, potentially due to some damage."

On his moment with Piastri, who was lapping him at the time, Colapinto explained: “He was in my blind spot. After the contact with Tsunoda, I just wanted to pass him and I was not really focused on Oscar.”

Alpine remain rooted to the bottom of the Teams' Championship table, 15 points adrift of Kick Sauber, who managed to score with both cars in Austria.