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AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost has praised driver Pierre Gasly for his result during last weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, calling the effort from the Frenchman 'fantastic.'
Gasly was able to move up the order after showing fine pace early on in the race, despite being the only driver to start the race on the hardest compound tyre.
When the safety car came out on lap eleven for the accident involving Antonio Giovinazzi and George Russell, Gasly stayed out on his hard tyres, bringing the AlphaTauri up to fourth position.
Gasly defended until his only pitstop on lap 26, before charging back through the field on medium compound tyres to eventually finish in eighth position, dedicating the drive to his late friend Anthoine Hubert, who was killed at the circuit in an accident in F2 last year.
Speaking on the performance of his driver, Tost explained how both drivers initially had a good start off the line and made up positions, but Gasly's efforts saw him drop down the order and come back to finish ahead of his teammate, Daniil Kvyat, who took the chequered flag in eleventh.
“Both of our drivers had a really good start and Pierre immediately began to overtake the cars in front, moving up to P8," Tost commented.
“After (Antonio) Giovinazzi’s crash which brought out the Safety Car, we decided to leave Pierre out on the hard tyre as for our strategy it was too early to pit him.
“Pierre did a very good job defending his position until other drivers managed to overtake him on fresher tyres, so we pitted him for mediums on lap 26.
“He then started a competitive comeback to close the gap and was able to overtake the Haas, Ferrari and Racing Points to finish in eighth position.
“It was a fantastic drive from Pierre and without the Safety Car, our strategy to start on the hard tyres would have paid off even more as I think Pierre could have finished higher up the order.”
Grand Prix of Belgium
C. Sainz jr
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great performance