Hamilton would have gone straight on if he hadn’t hit me

Pierre Gasly said the damage he suffered in a collision with Lewis Hamilton ruined his chances of scoring any points in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

“It wasn’t my day,” said the Alpine driver. “I think most of the damage was done when Lewis just came at the back of my car and just destroyed the whole diffuser at the back of it.”

The Alpine driver, who finished 13th, said he was caught unaware when the Mercedes ran into him at turn six.

“I braked late,” Gasly explained. “I was surprised that he went even – I think he would have gone straight if I wasn’t there.

“I started to have a bit of front graining, I locked up a bit but still made the corner. And I think he just missed the braking point and then basically ran at the back of my car.

“It was quite an impact. It was enough to just break and lose some part of the diffuser. So not great.”

“After that I was losing a lot of points of downforce,” he added.

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While the damage compromised his performance over the rest of the race, Gasly was also frustrated by the team’s decision to pit his team mate before he did, allowing Esteban Ocon to get ahead.

“Obviously I wasn’t happy with the strategy call,” said Gasly. “This will be reviewed and we made a mistake and I’m sure we’ll learn from it.

“But then with all the downforce I was losing, I’m talking four tenths a lap for 40 laps, maybe there was a P10 to fight for with Stroll. But I don’t think there was much more than that today. So not the easiest race to finish.”

The stewards decided not to penalise Hamilton for the collision, ruling that he likely did not expect Gasly to defend his position the way he did.

“Car 10 [Gasly] locked its front right tyre into turn six resulting in that car approaching the turn
on a slightly different line at a slightly lower speed which was obviously unexpected by the driver of car 44 [Hamilton],” they ruled. “Car 44 made light contact with the rear of car 10 in the turn. The stewards determine that no driver was wholly or predominantly to blame.”

However Gasly felt the outcome was “harsh” for him. “On one side, it makes me lose 15, 20 seconds of race time. Nothing of my control. So on one side, it’s harsh.

“On the other side he made a mistake and came in the back of my car. So it’s a tough one to say, but for sure it clearly cost me quite a lot today.”