Gasly sees clear progress for Alpine after Mexico City GP point
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Pierre Gasly believes Alpine has made significant strides with its A524 car, as demonstrated by the Frenchman's strong qualifying performance and a P10 finish at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Gasly and Alpine's return to the points marked an important moment for Alpine, as they aim to build on recent upgrades introduced in Austin.
After qualifying in eighth, Gasly enjoyed a rocky start to his race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, with an inadvertent contact with Alex Albon on the run down to Turn 1 set off a chain reaction that ultimately ended in a collision between the Williams driver and Yuki Tsunoda that eliminated both drivers.
Fortunately for Gasly, his car escaped unscathed, allowing him to put in a consistent drive that handed him the final points-paying position.
Despite his best efforts, Gasly couldn't match the pace of the Haas cars ahead, but he expressed satisfaction with scoring his first top ten finish since last summer's Dutch Grand Prix.
"Yeah, I'm very happy. It's been a while since we've seen that top 10 on Sunday, so very pleased for the team", Gasly said.
"We managed to come from a strong qualifying from yesterday, and Haas today were just too fast and I tried to hang on as much as I could at the start. On the first stint I wasn't too far but I could see them pulling away, and then on the second stint they were just too competitive.
"I tried to keep that P10 until the end, but we haven't scored points for a while so it definitely shows some progress from the whole team."
©Alpine
Gasly pointed to Alpine's recent upgrade at the US Grand Prix as the source of its car's improved pace.
"We clearly seem to have made a step with the car since we brought the upgrades in Austin," he explained.
"We've managed to do two Q3s in a row now in the last two weekends. The race in Austin was difficult, today was also quite tricky but at least we managed to finish in the top 10.
"There is still some work for us, but at least we're definitely making progress."
While Gasly was able to capitalize on the car's improvements, his teammate Esteban Ocon faced a more challenging weekend.
A decision to change power unit components saw him start from the pit lane, limiting his chances of breaking into the top 10. Despite gaining a few positions, Ocon ultimately finished in 13th and expressed disappointment with the result.
"A long race this afternoon, I would say," he said. "A couple of fights, but we are not quick enough to be able to come back from starting last, so we ended up 13th – that's all there was today."
Ocon's frustrations extended beyond just the Mexico City weekend, as he acknowledged a broader trend of missed opportunities in recent races.
"[I'm] disappointed from this weekend, from quite a few weekends to be fair," Ocon said. "Hopefully we can turn things around."
Despite the mixed results between its drivers, Alpine's recent upgrades have shown promise. Gasly's return to the points and his optimism about the car's progress signal a potential much-needed turnaround for the team they continues to battle Williams for seventh in F1's Constructors' standings.
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