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Gasly looking forward to 'impressive' circuit in Saudi Arabia

Gasly looking forward to 'impressive' circuit in Saudi Arabia

30-11-2021 11:00 Last update: 12:16
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GPblog.com

With only an eleventh place in the race, the Qatar Grand Prix ended up being a disappointment for Pierre Gasly. Especially since the Frenchman was starting from the front row of the grid for the first time in his Formula 1 career. The AlphaTauri driver looks ahead to the first-ever Saudi Arabia Grand Prix.

Gasly has the taste for it

Despite the disappointment in Qatar, Gasly looks back on the past triple-header positively in his team's preview. "Overall it went very well for us with strong performances in qualifying. Apart from Qatar, when the car didn't run well and the tyres broke down quickly, we also had good races." In any case, Gasly has a taste for it when it comes to starting on the front row of the grid. "It was great to be on the front row again and to be there next to Lewis was very cool. I hope there will be more of those moments in the future."

Teammate Yuki Tsunoda finished thirteenth in Qatar leaving AlphaTauri scoreless in Qatar. Alpine, AlphaTauri's competitor for fifth place in the championship, did well in Qatar with third and fifth places. The French are now twenty-five points ahead. "Unfortunately, the situation in the championship is more complicated now."

Jeddah extremely fast and challenging

Next weekend, Formula One will descend on the Jeddah International Circuit in Saudi Arabia for the first time. "Judging from what I have seen on the simulator, it will be extremely fast with a large number of very fast corners, some of them blind. The speeds will be very high, but the walls are very close, so it should be impressive from the cockpit and a nice challenge."

However, that won't be the only challenge for the drivers. "The track surface is completely new. No cars have ever raced on it, there is no rubber yet and there will probably be some oil coming out of the asphalt, which normally happens on a new circuit." As well as the fact that the track is likely to have little grip, there is also the challenge that no one has ever raced on the track before. "We showed in Qatar that we can adapt to a new situation quite quickly, by competing at the front straight away on Friday," Gasly is not worried yet.