Alpine have had a strong start to the season, with Gasly scoring points in both of the opening two races of the season, as well as team-mate Franco Colapinto scoring his first points for the team, finishing tenth in China.

Gasly managed to qualify in seventh position for the Chinese GP, just eight tenths of a second from the dominant Mercedes' of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli. Alpine, despite facing much criticism at the end of last season for abandoning their position in the sport as an engine manufacturer, have managed a positive start to the year with the new Mercedes engine in the car.

The Frenchman was able to outqualify four-time world champion, and former team-mate, Max Verstappen, and also gained two places immediately, due to both McLaren's not starting the race.

After a small mistake on the grid, with Gasly missing his grid box, the Frenchman managed to reverse the car back into position.

Gasly, who started only behind the Mercedes' and Ferrari's, managed to come across the line for a strong sixth place finish, only beaten during the race by Haas' Oliver Bearman.

Speaking about his strong performance, Gasly stated: "It is a little annoying, not to get P5, because I really felt comfortable, the pace was fine. I wasn't getting too carried away, because I knew in this new car, in this new race, it isn't about if there is going to be a safety car, it's when there is going to be a safety car."

Gasly continued: "At the restart, for whatever reason, I didn't touch the power, when I went on power out of the last corner. Mid-race, with the fighting with the Haas' and Max, I lost ground a bit on Bearman."

Despite sitting in front of Gasly, eventually Max Verstappen was forced to retire, with a technical issue plaguing his RB22. Verstappen was just one of seven drivers who either did not start the race, or retired from the race.

Speaking about Alpine's progress so far in 2026, Gasly said: "Looking at '25, where we were, and where we are now, it's a completely different league, so I'm very pleased. We did a good job in qualifying, a couple of tenths off McLaren. There's still many little things we need to fine tune and fix, so I'm pretty confident, China was special and hopefully the performance here will be quite similar to races in America."

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