Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri, Silverstone, 2021

Gasly suspects gravel caused race-ruining puncture

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In the round-up: Pierre Gasly suspects gravel caused his puncture at the end of the British Grand Prix.

In brief

Gasly: Late-race puncture came from gravel

Gasly was running in ninth place until he was forced to pit on lap 47 of the British Grand Prix, after suffering a left-rear puncture. He suspects gravel dragged onto the track by a rival caused the failure.

“I don’t know who went through the gravel at turn seven but there was gravel on the track and I went through there and then got a rear left puncture,” he said.

“Honestly, I have no words because it was such a hard weekend. We were in the points five laps to the end and then, I don’t know, someone went off in turn seven and then we had a puncture and I had to box with five laps to go because the rear left was punctured.

“Honestly, it’s so frustrating because, as I say, it was one of the most difficult weekends of the season and we managed to make it back to the points and in the end, to lose by nothing, just for a puncture right at the end is very frustrating.”

Verstappen released from hospital without injuries

Late on Sunday Red Bull issued a statement confirming Max Verstappen has been released from hospital, after being taken for further checks following his 51G crash at Copse on the opening lap of the British Grand Prix.

“We are pleased to confirm that Max was released from hospital at 22:00 this evening, following a thorough medical examination, without any major injuries.

“Max and the team would like to thank the trackside Marshalls and medical staff for their exceptional care both on-site at Silverstone and in Coventry Hospital.”

Alonso: Seventh-place finish Alpine’s strongest pace yet

Fernando Alonso, Alpine, Silverstone, 2021
Alonso was pleased with his run to seventh
Fernando Alonso described the British Grand Prix as Alpine’s best for pure pace since his return to Formula One.

“[It was] very busy, we never have an easy race. We are always in different battles at different times of the race.

“But yeah, I think it was a strong weekend. We’ve been in the points for the last four or five races.

“Our best result was Baku, P6, but it was a strange race so today, P7 is probably our strongest weekend on race pace. I’m happy for that. It was a difficult race for tyre management with a lot of blister concerns and we managed quite well and delivered a good result.”

Raikkonen: Alfa pace means races are purely defensive

Kimi Raikkonen said that the limited pace of Alfa Romeo means the only kind of racing he can do is defensive, rather than looking for opportunities to move forwards.

“In the end, I’m watching more mirrors than forward all the time. Yes, the race is purely for trying to defend.

“We need to be faster. And, you know, we tried and I’d rather fight for the position than just finish 11th or 12th, it makes no sense.”

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Comment of the day

In all the debate about what could (or even should) have been in Verstappen and Hamilton’s battle, Charles Leclerc’s own fight – with his power unit – is easy to forget. Adunlucas asks if Hamilton could have got the win, had Leclerc not suffered engine cut-outs?

Leclerc lost some two seconds from the problem itself. Later they put the engine on a conservative position just to be safe. They wouldn’t do it in normal circumstances.

His time improved by half a second a lap when they went back to full power, if we think that he lost 0.3s a lap for 20 laps would be six seconds.

Surely Lewis wouldn’t even try to close if Charles were performing better and with a bit more advantage (as I put above, eight more seconds maybe). It’s a pity. He and Ferrari deserved the win.
@adunlucas

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On this day in motorsport

  • 30 years ago today Ayrton Senna emerged unscathed when he rolled his McLaren at 180mph in testing at the Hockenheimring

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15 comments on “Gasly suspects gravel caused race-ruining puncture”

  1. Great performance from Alonso all weekend. Very consistent race pace and some great racing all round. I guess 7th is the absolute max Alpine’s pace. The gap to the Mclarens and Ferraris is too large, I guess the only thing they can do is be there to capitalise on the highest haul of points possible.

  2. The racial slurs are getting way out of hand lately.

  3. Are you insinuating that a few are okay? They have always been out of hand.

    1. @ucat33 I don’t think that poster meant to insinuate that a few would be fine – rather, I think that their point was that sort of abuse wasn’t growing in the way that it has been in the past few years.

  4. To COTD I’d add that also Hamilton was lucky with the strength of his own car. Often we’ve seen front wheel to rear wheel contact where the rear wheel is actually quite robust, but the front wheel impact breaks a wishbone.

  5. Re: Gasly puncture.
    I’ll obviously eagerly await a full report post analysis, but its concerning that even after the introduction of the “more robust” tyre this weekend, we still got a puncture.
    At least it wasn’t a spectacular blow out this time.

  6. Puncture from gravel? That’s another reason why no gravel.

    1. Or a reason for better tyres

  7. How unfortunate for Gasly to get a puncture from a gravel piece.

    I wonder why going into the track medical center wasn’t enough, but also the hospital separately? Anyway, most important was he walked out himself and unscathed from a 51G hit.

    Racial abuse? People should know better. Only racing and a racing incident, so no place for this type of treatment.

    1. @jerejj there are checks that can be done in a hospital that can’t be done trackside; Dr Ian Roberts said concussion was their main concern and things like CT scans would need transfer.

      1. @hazelsouthwell Thank you for the explanation.

  8. Re Verstappen: Glad he’s OK. He will keep it close next race. And Jos looks like a ghost who haunts people’s souls.
    Re Hamilton abuse: Trigger Warning, everyone. It’s gone out of control.

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