RaceFans Round-up: “McLaren and Alpine are just too fast for us”

In brief

AlphaTauri struggling in midfield – Gasly

Gasly started from the pit lane in Hungary due to a power unit change. He recovered to finish 12th, but admitted the team is still lacking performance.

“The last few weekends obviously have been quite difficult and starting from the pit lane now we decided to revert on a couple of the things we did, try to get back to what we did earlier this season. I think there were actually a lot of interesting things.

“In terms of performance I think we showed a slightly better pace than we used to do on Friday and we showed in the last couple of of weekends. So definitely some interesting data.

“From the pit lane I’m pretty pleased to make it back to P12. At the moment McLaren and Alpine are just too fast for us and Aston on race day seem to pick up quite a bit of pace as well. Still I would say a positive Sunday even though we are quite far from the position we’d like.”

Teams stay in Hungary to test

Mercedes and Aston Martin weren’t in a hurry to depart the Hungaroring. The two teams will test prototype slick tyres for Pirelli on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Bird scores points with broken hand

Sam Bird broke his hand on the first lap of the London Eprix, yet finished the race and scored points.

The Jaguar driver did not attend media duties after the race. His team confirmed that, on medical advice, he had gone for precautionary hospital checks on a hand injury. He was involved in several bumping incidents during the first lap.

Formula E drivers unimpressed with multiple first-lap retirements

Jean-Eric Vergne, Oliver Rowland, Dan Ticktum and Nick Cassidy retired on the first lap of the second London EPrix. Oliver Askew also retired later after being involved in the incidents.

Cassidy was seen slowing behind the safety car after Rowland and Ticktum’s retirements called it out. He blamed his early exit from the race on Maximilian Günther.

“The first seven corners, I was hit seven times by Günther,” said Cassidy. “Fair play for persistence, he obviously keeps at it, doesn’t give up. Fair play.”

Rowland’s retirement came after going semi-airborne, his car lifting between Askew’s and the wall on the ramp section. However, he said that the worse damage was when he landed and then subsequently hit Vergne, who was crawling back to the pits with a…