Nottingham [UK], July 13 : F1 drivers rarely see eye to eye over their crashes and that appeared to be the case for Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll after the pair’s coming together at Silverstone, which saw Gasly retire from the race.
According to a press release by Formula 1, Stroll was already in Gasly’s bad books after the Frenchman felt that he’d been overtaken by the Aston Martin when Stroll was off the track at Stowe corner – although the stewards investigated and ruled no further action.
However, a few laps later, Stroll and Gasly came together at the Vale chicane, the impact damaging Gasly’s right-rear suspension and forcing him into retirement.
Pierre Gasly said, “We got passed by Lance off the racetrack but apparently it was fine. I managed to pass him back and Carlos [Sainz] as well, and in the end we were taken out of the race."
“So I’m just extremely disappointed obviously. We’re not fighting for big points but still, it would be a small reward. It just feels like all the job and hard work we’re doing is ruined, so extremely disappointed right now.”
With Stroll handed a five-second penalty for the incident, Gasly was asked whether he felt that was a just punishment for his adversary.
Gasly said, “It doesn’t change my race. What do you want me to tell you? I’m here talking to you, I didn’t finish the race so. I got a 10-second penalty last week [in Austria, for track limits violations] five hours after the race. Now he’s taking me out of the race and gets a five-second penalty."
“That’s racing nowadays. I’ll race him how I want to race in the future and make sure we score points next time.”
Lance Stroll said, “I got pushed off the track both times. So pretty simple for me. Both times I went by him, he gave me no room.”
Stroll would eventually be classified in P14, while Gasly’s failure to score was compounded by Esteban Ocon retiring from the race on Lap 9 – marking the third time Alpine have failed to score on a weekend this year.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor