22/10/2023
NEWS STORY
BWT Alpine F1 Team scored two points from today's Sprint Race after Pierre Gasly's seventh place finish at the Circuit of the Americas, Austin for the United States Grand Prix. Esteban Ocon gained two places to rise from thirteenth on the grid to eleventh.
In the Sprint Shootout, Pierre reached SQ3 - his second top ten Qualifying effort of the weekend - with Esteban out in SQ2 in thirteenth.
Both drivers started the 19-lap Sprint Race on Used Mediums looking to gain places and chase the points-paying positions inside the top eight. Esteban made a bright start to move from thirteenth to eleventh. Pierre was able to pass the Williams of Alexander Albon and then Oscar Piastri with a neat move late on the brakes into Turn 1 for eighth place. With George Russell's five-second penalty applied after the race, Pierre was able to inherit seventh place at the chequered flag to claim two points.
Tomorrow's 56-lap race begins at 14:00 local time with Pierre starting seventh and Esteban eighth on the grid.
Esteban Ocon: "It's not been the smoothest of days on our side here in Austin. The Sprint Shootout started strongly and we were comfortably through SQ1. We did not have enough to reach the top ten and we will look into the reasons why as that would have put us in a much stronger position to compete for points in the Sprint Race. We started the Race well, made some positions at the start but, after that, we could not go much further and points were out of reach. We certainly have many things to review and some learnings to take forward for tomorrow. We are in a good position for the race, it will be a long one, and we will do our best to come away with a good result."
Pierre Gasly: "I'm really happy today. We had a strong race from ninth, passed Alex [Albon] straight away and then I did a nice move on Oscar [Piastri] for eighth. After that, I had to try to keep up with George [Russell] and Carlos [Sainz] ahead knowing George had a penalty and that I needed to keep a five-second gap. The pace was good in general, even if we had a bit of tyre degradation towards the end. There is definitely some good things for us to analyse from the race today and the two points is a nice bonus. The hard work will continue ahead of tomorrow and we will see how we can put ourselves in the mix for strong points. Right now, I'm pleased with our pace, and I'm fully focused on tomorrow's race."