Pierre Gasly expressed feeling “devastated” following the incident where Franco Colapinto collided with him during the Azerbaijan GP.

However, a significant lock-up from Colapinto on the inside resulted in the Argentinian colliding with his teammate in Turn 1, which then sent the sister car into Lando Norris’ McLaren – all three drivers were forced to retire from the race.

Coincidentally, the Racing Bulls had their own clash at the same moment, but Arvid Lindblad was exonerated by the stewards and managed to secure seventh place at the finish. This resulted in a 13-point shift – Alpine now finds itself 15 points behind its fifth-placed rival in the constructors’ championship, rather than the potential two points based on the classification at lap 35.

“We're all very disappointed with the result after such a solid weekend, strong race,” Gasly expressed. “I felt great in the car. The pace was nearly as fast as Lewis and comparable to Lando.” Just before Albon’s crash on lap 30, Gasly was six seconds behind Hamilton and three seconds behind Norris, leading Kimi Antonelli by three seconds and Colapinto by 13.

“So, maintaining the three-second gap with him until [Norris] made the mistake in Turn 1, we had a 15-second cushion with Franco behind. I mean, it's still hard to process what just occurred.”

Lando Norris, McLaren, Pierre Gasly, Alpine

Despite securing pole position in Monza, Gasly feels that Alpine’s A526 has never been more competitive in race scenarios.

“Honestly, I believe that's the best race car we've had all year, which is a positive aspect,” he stated. “At the same time, when you get these opportunities to earn significant points, you need to capitalize. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen today.”

When asked if he appreciated Colapinto’s apology, the Frenchman paused for a few moments.

“I mean, crushed,” he finally replied. “If you ask me, I’m not pleased with today.

“I'll accept his apology.”

Gasly refrained from placing blame on race leader George Russell for the restart chaos, instead suggesting that F1’s new power units may have influenced the Mercedes driver’s actions.

“George does what he wants, and it's up to us to...” he started. “Clearly we were quite tightly packed, but with the engines we have and the constraints regarding battery, harvesting, etc., you're not really free in your decisions. So I wasn't particularly surprised that he [delayed the restart].”

Gasly will now focus on “a good night’s rest” and “a Sunday at home” to recover and be ready for the next race in Malaysia next weekend.