Mexican GP

Gasly ‘extremely happy’ with Mexican GP performance as AlphaTauri levels with Alpine

Kevin Peterson03 mins

Pierre Gasly has hailed his performance in Mexican GP as AlphaTauri moved level with Alpine in the Formula 1 constructors’ championship Gasly finished comfortably ahead of the two Ferraris to finish fourth at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. It was a lonely race for the AlphaTauri driver, finishing over 17 seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc in fifth. “I’m extremely happy, yes. It’s been a fantastic weekend – fifth in quali and fourth in the race,” Gasly said. “Everything was under control with Charles [Leclerc] behind and I could pull away nicely. I managed the whole race, so no, just a fantastic day.” Mexico was an important race for Gasly having not scored in three of the previous four races before the Mexican GP. “Yes exactly. Especially in the last four races… we had two DNFs even though the pace was there. But this weekend, the car was there, we delivered yesterday in quali, we delivered today in the race and finishing [ahead of] the two Ferraris always feels nice.” The result means AlphaTauri sits level on points with Alpine in the race for fifth in the constructors’ championship – the French outfit is ahead on countback thanks to Esteban Ocon’s win at the Hungaroring. Brazil is next up in F1 – the scene of Pierre Gasly’s maiden podium for Toro Rosso back in 2019. “We’re equal on points with Alpine now,” he added. “So it’s my personal target to give that to Franz so I can have a nice Christmas gift at the end of the year! So we’ll keep pushing for that and looking at our work as a team. I think we have our chances and we’ll fight until the end.”

Red Bull reverts on Tsunoda’s criticism after Mexican GP Qualifying mix-up

Kevin Peterson04 mins

Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner backtracked on some of the criticism directed at AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda after seeing both his drivers finish on the podium in Mexico. Yuki Tsunoda was heavily criticised after qualifying in Mexico, but Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was much more understanding of the AlphaTauri driver’s blunder following Sunday’s race. The Japanese rookie, who races for Red Bull’s development team Alpha Tauri, was slammed as a “dumb idiot” by Verstappen for running off the track in the decisive moments of Q3. Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said Verstappen and also Sergio Perez had been “Tsunoda-d”, while Dr Helmut Marko accused the 21-year-old of “killing both of our cars”. Predictably, Mercedes poked fun at the situation on social media. “Keep your head up, Yuki. Don’t let the haters get you down,” the team quipped on Twitter. Tsunoda also defended himself, writing on social media that there was “nothing more” he could do to get out of the way of the two Red Bulls. “I’m worried because I have to talk to Red Bull now,” the Japanese also told reporters. “But I did nothing wrong.” Tsunoda was indeed summoned to a one-on-one meeting with Marko – and afterwards, the 78-year-old Austrian had changed his tune. “The incident was not Tsunoda’s fault,” Marko insisted. “The team knew what was happening on the track and should have asked him to leave the line earlier.” When asked what he told Tsunoda during the meeting, Marko revealed: “I told him that the engineer was responsible.” Alpha Tauri boss Franz Tost also said the young driver, who was moved to Italy by Red Bull earlier this year and is now being personally coached by Alex Albon, did nothing wrong. “We told him on the radio that the Red Bull was coming and he just needed to get out of the way so they could drive by safely,” said the Austrian. “But Perez flew off the track after Tsunoda. It wasn’t Yuki’s fault,” Tost added. “To be honest, I absolutely do not understand why Perez left the track after Yuki.” Sergio Perez, whose run off the track inspired Verstappen to lift the throttle and ultimately miss pole by two tenths, explained: “Yuki suddenly went off track in front of me.