Pierre Gasly’s pole position this Saturday (5) seemed unlikely. However, the driver’s surprising performance during qualifying for the Italian GP puts Alpine in front of an even greater opportunity: to win this Sunday’s race and deliver Gasly his second victory in Formula 1 and at Monza.
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The Frenchman beat George Russell of Mercedes in the final moments of a dramatic qualifying. For Steve Nielsen, Alpine’s boss, there is hope: “We didn’t expect to be on pole, but we are,” he told Sky Sports. “Tomorrow, with good starts, good strategy, good pit stops, who knows?”
Nielsen also saw the pole position achievement as a response to the decision that took away Gasly’s podium at this year’s Monaco GP: “It’s a long time in politics and in F1. When you think about the mood in the camp when we got the Monaco result, which honestly will annoy me for the rest of my life, it’s a great way to react with the pole position.”
The car’s development also helped. The major upgrade brought to Zandvoort, initially used only by Gasly, is now on both cars. Franco Colapinto finished qualifying in eighth. “We put a big upgrade on Pierre’s car at Zandvoort,” said Nielsen. “That is also on Franco’s car here. I think we didn’t get the best out of the package at Zandvoort, it’s a somewhat peculiar track.”
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“But we came here, and the car is responding very well. We got the distances right, got the slipstreams right, the drivers made no mistakes, and the lap time is clearly in the car, because both cars were quite fast.”
Nielsen acknowledged the rapid change of atmosphere within the team: “Well, today, right now, yes! But if you asked me that two or three days ago, we were all down. So it’s really from being very low to being on top of the world in just, what, two days? And it’s amazing. We need to absorb that and make the most of it.”
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