Pierre Gasly says he didn’t expect he would be able to out-run Valtteri Bottas to win the Italian Grand Prix.
The AlphaTauri driver took the lead of the race after a mid-race red flag. Early leader Lewis Hamilton was heavily delayed by a 10-second stop-go penalty. But when Gasly took the lead Bottas was less than four seconds behind in the other Mercedes.Bottas wasn’t able to pass the cars between them, however, and Gasly held off Carlos Sainz Jnr to score his first race victory.
“I was really happy to be in that fight with Carlos with the McLaren,” said Gasly. “I must say I thought Bottas with the Mercedes had such a big edge in quali that they would come back and will probably be on for the win and we’ll have to settle for second or third at some point.
“But quite quickly I saw he wasn’t making so much ground and we had our opportunity. It kind of reminded me of the old times fighting with Carlos in the younger series, it was a pretty nice feeling.”
Gasly’s victory was one of the most surprising results of recent seasons.
“To have an unexpected podium which you can’t predict and unpredictable races are, I guess, always more exciting and more interesting to watch and to follow,” he said. “I think that’s what direction F1 is trying to take in the future with the regulations. We had three different midfield teams on the podium and I think it was great to see.”
Despite a busy week of commitments since his breakthrough victory, Gasly said his preparations for this weekend’s race haven’t been affected.
“I had a good sleep last night and I’m going to go to bed pretty early tonight as well,” he said. “So no big concern.
“Obviously I realise that winning a Formula 1 grand prix, especially for the first time, there is quite a lot of solicitations in the coming days. It’s been pretty mental, I must say, I’m not going to lie. It’s been very intense.
“I didn’t really have any time for myself to sit down and even just realise what had happened. But it’s something that happens once in a lifetime. Things have to be done and it’s part of my job and it’s my job to deliver again this weekend. I’m well aware of that.
“I’ve done all my preparations, I’ve trained really hard Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, even though it was really busy, and I’m fully feeling fully ready for this weekend.”
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BasCB (@bascb)
11th September 2020, 8:16
Didn’t we all. Including Bottas, unless by then he had already given up on his car being able to run in traffic at Monza.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
11th September 2020, 8:35
I think he probably had. We saw how he was having to move out of the slipstream to keep temperatures down, even ludicrously early in the race.
On the other hand Hamilton was showing us the true pace of the Mercedes in clear air, possibly for the first time this season. A good 1.5 seconds per lap faster than the opposition in race trim.
ColdFly (@)
11th September 2020, 8:58
Hamilton was overtaking cars as well though, and he was behind some for a bit of time.
It just shows that it wasn’t the car but the attacking style of Bottas vs Hamilton which caused Bottas to be stuck in the middle.
It seems that Bottas was doinig his attacks too cautiously and therefore was stuck behind the other car(s) for too long, which caused the heating issues.
@bascb, @red-andy
Learon
11th September 2020, 9:07
+1
BasCB (@bascb)
11th September 2020, 15:10
On the overtaking I have to disagree though @coldfly. Hamilton was passing cars like the Williams and the Alfa’s, a Haas, Albon who had a badly damaged floor, Perez wit damage, i.e. backmarkers. Only Kvyat and Ocon were somewhat comparable to Norris ahead of Bottas. And the gaps between them meant Hamilton had a few laps in between where the car was in clean air. Now, I am sure Hamilton is a far better racer than Bottas, but their situation was far from comparable last Sunday
Kribana (@krichelle)
11th September 2020, 9:17
@bascb
Do note that Bottas was on Medium tyres while Hamilton was on Hard tyres. Now, I don’t know whether to put this down on skill or on the tyres, but one guy was able to close 20+ seconds to the other, while the other stayed in position. I believe Bottas would have been better on hards considering that the tyres and car were overheating. However, Bottas better start putting up some performances… Without his bad start, he would have won the race easily.
F1oSaurus (@)
11th September 2020, 9:37
Again weird how Hamilton went against what the team thought was best. You’d think they agree on strategy upfront.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
11th September 2020, 9:43
@f1osaurus Actually Hamilton called for mediums when they pitted him – that was part of how the ‘pit closed’ signal was missed. They could have changed them during the red flag, of course, but by then circumstances had changed as he knew he’d have a penalty.
abananasplitz
11th September 2020, 9:49
actually i remember him saying to his pit “Hard tyre, hard tire” and the team over ruling him and putting him on the mediums.. did we watch the same race?
Tommy Scragend
11th September 2020, 10:02
“Hard tyre, hard tyre”
“Too late to change now, Lewis, we’ll be going medium”
Hamilton changed to hard tyres during the red flag.
Martin
11th September 2020, 10:17
For reference https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2020/9/2020_Italian_Grand_Prix__Hamilton_told_pit_entry_is_closed.html
Not sure when Hamilton asked for Mediums.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
11th September 2020, 13:06
Indeed, he asked for hard, at least that is what one of your articles also suggests.
F1oSaurus (@)
11th September 2020, 16:56
@keithcollantine As all the others already replied, he asked specifically for hard tyres yet was given medium, because that was what they had ready.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
11th September 2020, 9:50
Bottas has always been a bit of a coward at wheel-to-wheel racing.
Norris, Stroll and Ricciardo all overtaking him on the opening lap at Monza with much slower cars was humiliating.
Max re-passing him at Austria with a damaged front wing and older tyres was embarrassing.
He couldn’t overtake Vettel at Bahrain 2018 when Vettel was driving on tyre carcass and was lapping at backmarker pace.
The manner in which he was schooled by Vettel, Verstappen and Ricciardo at Abu Dhabi 2018 despite driving the best car that weekend.
I’m sure there are more examples. Bottas has appallingly bad racecraft. He’s like an AI car on CodeMasters who is reasonably quick in clean air but useless when racing.
knightameer (@knightameer)
11th September 2020, 11:44
He is an AI. Bot Bottas 1.0 2.0 3.0
Esploratore (@esploratore)
11th September 2020, 13:08
A big example would be comparing the hamilton’s chase on verstappen with a further pit stop in hungary 2019 and bottas’ chase on verstappen in the same situation in hungary 2020, hamilton did it, bottas failed.
F1oSaurus (@)
11th September 2020, 17:05
@kingshark It’s not really that he’s a coward though. He just isn’t very good at dealing with the loss of grip when driving close behind another car. Or at least compared to Hamilton he isn’t.
So that means he’s usually stuck with half assed attempts at an overtake if he manages to get close enough at all. That might look “cowardly”, but it’s really borne out of lack of opportunity.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
11th September 2020, 10:19
Have to admit I thought that Bottas would blow through all of them and cruise to an easy win. I’m still confused how he didn’t especially when Hamilton came firing through in the same car. That whole race he looked nervous and uncomfortable driving against other cars and sure some of that must be the way the car was set up, or engine modes, but in general he just looked very poor throughout that race.
If he was ever interested in winning the title he should have a little bit more bite? Monza was a gift to his title chances and he didn’t take it. I like the guy, and I’d like to see him win a title but I wonder if he wants to sometimes.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
11th September 2020, 13:09
Nah, a gift to his title chances, I wouldn’t call them title changes, maybe a gifted chance on getting 1 more race win? But let’s be realistic, mercedes and hamilton are already decided, just not mathematically yet.
CarWars (@maxv)
11th September 2020, 11:02
I thought they commented they closed off too much cooling ducts on Bottas. Something you think they would have changed at restart, still no overtaking magic. Bottas is a disappointment, would be great to have a real competitor in the second Mercedes seat.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
11th September 2020, 12:08
It would be great for the viewers, but more of the time, bottas is ideal for Mercedes and better for the team than when Rosberg was there. Hamilton and Rosberg’s collisions or contacts or even just pushing each other wide and off track quite possibly lost the team as many or more points than Bottas having an underwhelming patch of the season. As least Hamilton is usually able to perform brilliantly when Bottas is like this. Rosberg ruined some of the teams and Hamilton’s results. He’s overall a better driver than Bottas, but the team hasn’t really got much of a need to change anything at the moment.
Bottas doesn’t always struggle behind other cars and we can’t be sure how much his issues effected him this race. Mercedes were strictly limited as to what they could do at the restart so it is unlikely they could help Bottas there. An example of a fine recovery from Bottas was in Abu Dhabi last year from last to less than a second off the podium. Abu Dhabi is one of the hardest tracks to overtake on. This problem could have hindered Bottas a bit more than we think and it is the only time recently where he’s not managed to pass any slower cars other than the Red Bull Verstappen is driving. We should probably let him off this once.
tony mansell
11th September 2020, 11:46
Rosberg’s stock grows greater. A lot of nonsense talked about Jenson when he ‘outpointed’ Lewis but the only driver to take it to the man was Rosberg. Few seem to realise how good Lewis, he’s a career destroyer and Bottas has done well in that context but he doffs his cap when needs be and forgets his cap when he could do with it, like last weekend. They will keep him and then when Lewis finishes, they’ll finish with him.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
11th September 2020, 13:11
Bottas’ overall performances, not just this year, averaging his career out reminds me of barrichello, so I’m not sure looking would make just anyone look average.
Verstappen at mercedes, then I want to see! Would be great competition I believe.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
11th September 2020, 13:12
Not sure hamilton*