"I would not say easy, but it wasn't too hard," says Pierre Gasly of 44 lap game of cat and mouse with Lewis Hamilton.

Even in the midst of a fairly processional race it seemed odd to hear professional racing drivers - albeit now better known for their punditry - call for the race director to enable the use of DRS.

Once approval was given however, on Lap 35, it merely meant that said pundits and commentators would get themselves worked up in a 'will he, won't he' frenzy any time drivers headed into Tamburello.

By the time DRS was finally enabled, Lewis Hamilton had been staring into Pierre Gasly's tailpipe for 16 laps... sadly, even with its enabling the seven-time world champion was unable to make a move on the AlphaTauri.

"It was probably the only thing that happened the whole race," said the Frenchman. "He was stuck behind me, I was stuck behind the (Albon) car, and that car was stuck with the car ahead... it was just a train.

"So it wasn't a particularly exciting race and quite frustrating," he admitted. "Even with the DRS, we were not able to make it round and try to set ourselves up for a move.

"We know when you have a bad qualifying, we made a mistake in qualifying, and when you start from the back, it's always extremely difficult. And I think we paid the price this weekend," he added.

Asked if it was easy holding off the seven-time champ, he replied: "I would not say easy... but it wasn't too hard.

"Unfortunately for him he always gets stuck behind me on tracks where it's extremely hard to pass," he added, recalling last year's Monaco Grand Prix.

"But I think I was as frustrated as he was, you know? Just for whatever reason, even with the DRS, this year was very tough to pass here."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Spindoctor, 25/04/2022 16:44

"Gasly had a faster (RBR-powered) car which was the middle car in a DRS "train", with Hamilton at the back. The Merc's lack of straight-line speed meant he was able easily to stay ahead of Hamilton. More surprising, to me, anyway was that Gasly was unable to attack Albon in a notoriously slow car.....

I think the big takeaway from this race is that on some tracks the much-vaunted "improvements" in overtaking which the new Formula promised cannot be delivered. As in previous seasons, without the infamous .9sec/lap speed advantage for the overtaker; overtaking is horribly difficult even with DRS.

The Red Bull is now clearly significantly the fastest car...."

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2. Posted by kdxrider, 25/04/2022 12:57

"Where as, I thought Albon played the defensive game even better, and without DRS for most of the time."

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3. Posted by kenji, 25/04/2022 8:52

"I thought that Gasly played the defensive game exceptionally well. Really cool."

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"It wasn't too hard," says Gasly of Hamilton battle

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