Monaco Grand Prix – Alpha Tauri driver Pierre Gasly has said that Sebastian Vettel’s move on him for fifth place at the Monaco Grand Prix could have ended up in the harbour.
Vettel had his strongest race of the season at Monaco and managed to jump Gasly and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton at the pitstops.
As the Aston Martin driver exited the pits, he re-joined side-by-side with Gasly before making the move stick and getting past the Frenchman.
Gasly has revealed that he wanted to speak to the German after the race but conceded that the move was fair.
“Honestly, I went to see him and I told him there wasn’t one more centimetre he could have squeezed,” said Gasly as quoted by Motorsport.com.
“You know going up the hill it’s not really straight, it’s actually like turning a bit. I was hoping for him to give the space, but until I got there I didn’t know.
“It was pretty close. It was tight, really hard racing, but still fair. We still made it.
“I think if I would have been a bit more aggressive, we would probably both ended up in the harbour, so yeah I’m glad we came out of it.”
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Alpha Tauri have shown glimpses of pace throughout the season but haven’t been able to translate that pace into results. Monaco is, however, Gasly’s best finish of the season thus far and has helped the team leapfrog Alpine in the constructors’ table.
Gasly admitted that he felt some pressure with Hamilton behind, but is pleased with the step forward his team have made.
“It was our best qualifying of the year yesterday with the sixth position, and today is our best race result as well, so I’m pleased,” said Gasly.
“You know, it was quite intense with Hamilton right behind us for 78 laps so we could not do any mistakes. He boxed and put the pressure on us, we had to cover him, and kind of gave free track for Vettel and [Sergio] Perez which overcut us.
“So we’ll have to review that, but generally I think I’m pretty pleased with the step we made this weekend and be back right at the front.”
