Pierre Gasly enjoyed another strong performance at Spa on Sunday, driving to ninth after 44 laps at the Belgian Grand Prix, a drive he believes was made possible due to tyre strategy from the start.
According to Gasly, he was able to avoid the first corner melee, Nico Hulkenberg missing his braking point and slamming into Fernando Alonso and sending the McLaren over the top of Charles Leclerc's Sauber, because of tyre strategy having decided to start on supersoft tyres despite not making Q3.
Speaking to Motorsport.com, Gasly explained that the decision was crucial in avoiding the first lap crash at La Source because of the decision.
“It gives you a better start, and looking at Friday's pace we knew that our tyre life was really good compared to the others. We were not really scared that we could make the one-stop work with the supersoft and the soft.
“In the end I managed to be alongside Daniel and Kimi in Turn 1 thanks to that, probably with the soft I would've been taken away in the first corner by Nico and all the mess behind me.
“So (it) was a good choice. Clearly the best we could do today.
“Once again in these last few weeks I've been in the right place at the right time at the start – pretty lucky to not be involved in that crash and have a pretty nice race.”