AlphaTauri Formula 1 driver Pierre Gasly says the end of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was the “most painful last 15 laps of my career” as he felt like he was “dying inside the car”.
Gasly had qualified ninth on the grid but suffered the same unlucky fate as his Red Bull stablemate Sergio Perez in making his first pitstop right before the safety car was deployed.
This dropped him outside of the top 10 but the Frenchman was able to earn four points for his AlphaTauri team after recovering to finish in eighth place.
But that recovery was threatened by the onset of intense pain which Gasly could still feel after the race.
“I must say I am really happy,” Gasly said.
“It was very unlucky timing with the pitstop, when we boxed, as soon as I came out of the pits, I saw the safety car came out, so I dropped to 14th.
“We managed to make our way back to P8, so yeah, I think we can be happy and on my side, it’s been the most painful last 15 laps of my career.
“I don’t know what’s happened with my intestine, but I was dying inside the car. I was screaming because of pain and just happy the race is done, and we managed to secure P8.”
Gasly said he’d never experienced pain like it and added “I feel like every left turn someone was stabbing me on the inside, on my intestine, so it was not nice”.
In a later interview with Sky, Gasly was asked if he had seen a doctor after the race and replied “I’ve seen him already, we’ll see after. I don’t know what it is. We’ll see what’s happened”.
He called the last five laps “survival” as he managed to match his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda’s Bahrain finish to double his team’s tally.
Tsunoda endured a miserable weekend with technical problems preventing his participation in both qualifying and the race.
It follows a series of mechanical woes for the team, including Gasly losing a points finish in Bahrain when his car set on fire.
“I must say, reliability wise very difficult since the first weekend,” he admitted.
“Testing went so well, we were confident. We lost some points in Bahrain on my side and now today Yuki didn’t qualify, and he didn’t even take the start.
“So as a team obviously quite painful to see that. But I’m confident within the team to find the solutions.
“We’ve been very reliable last year and the past few years but clearly, it’s been quite tough these first few weekends.”
Eight points leaves AlphaTauri seventh in the constructors’ championship after two races, ahead of the Mercedes customer teams of McLaren, Aston Martin and Williams.
