Points centurion Gasly ‘super happy’ to finish ahead of Ferraris in Jeddah, as Tsunoda apologises for Vettel crash

It was a tale of two races for AlphaTauri in Saudi Arabia as Pierre Gasly outdid the Ferrari duo and finished sixth, taking his 100th point of the season – while team mate Yuki Tsunoda copped a five-second penalty for colliding with Sebastian Vettel and finished 14th.

Gasly enjoyed competitive pace throughout the weekend, qualifying sixth and then finishing there by virtue of having swapped tyres during the first red-flag stoppage. With Charles Leclerc seventh, three seconds back, and Carlos Sainz eighth, Gasly was delighted to beat the Ferraris to the chase at Jeddah – and bring his points tally to a round 100.

“Yes, super happy: another top-six for us and we’re finishing in front of both Ferraris so pretty incredible,” said Gasly. “It means we’ve achieved 100 points in the season from my side which was the high target of the year. Really happy with that and for the team.

READ MORE: How a pair of crashes provided the ‘sliding doors’ moments in an electrifying Saudi Arabian GP

Yet with Esteban Ocon finishing fourth and declaring Alpine a force to be reckoned with, Gasly agreed and said his squad need an answer for their midfield rival’s pace.

“It was hard, we need to analyse quite a bit more because we were slower in the straights compared to our main rivals. In the corners I think we were quite competitive, so different to Qatar, but ultimately we were fast, we managed to catch Daniel [Ricciardo] in the end but we didn’t have the pace for the Alpine. They simply have found something towards the end of the year but objectively we’ll review. It’s a P6, so we have to be really pleased with that,” he explained.

Tsunoda on the other hand finished 14th of the 15 runners having collided with Vettel at Turn 2 on Lap 22 (above), taking a five-second penalty, and apologised for the incident after the race. He also clashed with Esteban Ocon of Alpine at the start.

“The last [re]start went well but [I] lost too many positions,” he said. “A mistake with the overtake and I had a collision with Vettel, that was completely my fault so I apologise to Sebastian and yes, a shame.

READ MORE: 6 Winners and 5 Losers from the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix – Who had a race to remember in Jeddah?

“The pace in the car was looking quite good at that point in the race, so I should have held off and waited for another opportunity to overtake. It was my mistake and I’ve apologised to him. It’s frustrating as I feel like points were on offer today,” he concluded.

AlphaTauri are now 29 points behind Alpine with one race to go – but have guaranteed P6 in the championship after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, which saw rivals Aston Martin leave without points.