Alpine’s Pierre Gasly lamented a disastrous Saturday evening at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, with the Frenchman retiring from the race after qualifying a stunning third 24 hours previously.
While Gasly had hopes of recording a fourth straight Q3 appearance for Alpine in Las Vegas, he surpassed his and the team’s expectations by making it all the way to P3 on Friday night – three weeks after the team celebrated an incredible double podium in Sao Paulo.
READ MORE: Verstappen crowned champion as Russell heads Mercedes 1-2 in Las Vegas
Gasly did lose out at the start but was still in the mix for points when he reported a loss of power over team radio – reacting angrily to being told by his race engineer that he had simply “hit the [rev] limiter” before a tell-tale puff of smoke spelled the end of his evening.
“It’s a very tough one to take because we had such a high yesterday,” said Gasly, “and obviously today it was the [worst] outcome possible. I think we did well, we knew the cars around us at the start were faster, so Max [Verstappen] and the McLarens, Norris and Hamilton got past us.