Gasly left 'crushed' as Colapinto's lock-up wipes out Alpine's Azerbaijan points haul

Pierre Gasly described himself as “crushed” after Franco Colapinto’s catastrophic lock-up at the Turn 1 restart eliminated both Alpine drivers from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, handing rivals Racing Bulls a 13-point swing in the constructors’ championship.

Gasly had led the midfield for much of the race and was running seventh when the safety car — deployed after Alexander Albon’s crash on lap 30 — came in. Colapinto was tenth, with the Racing Bulls pair down in 12th and 14th. The restart should have been a defining moment for Alpine’s season. Instead, a monumental lock-up from the Argentinian sent his car careering into Gasly’s A526, which was then punted into Lando Norris’ McLaren. All three drivers retired on the spot.

The timing made the damage even harder to absorb. Racing Bulls’ own collision at the same restart was investigated, but Arvid Lindblad was cleared of wrongdoing and went on to claim seventh at the flag. Alpine, which entered the weekend 15 points behind Racing Bulls in fifth place in the constructors’ standings, could have trimmed that deficit to just two points based on the lap-35 running order. Instead, the gap remains 15.

“I cannot believe it, so many points gone,” Gasly said immediately after retiring. He later expanded on his frustration, noting the car had felt unusually strong all weekend. “I was feeling very good with the car. The pace was almost as good as Lewis and same as Lando,” he said. “I think that’s the best race car we’ve had so far this year, which in a way is positive. At the same time, when you get these chances to score big points, you’ve got to make it happen. And sadly it didn’t happen today.”

Gasly had been tracking Norris at a three-second gap before Albon’s crash, with Colapinto 13 seconds further back. “We had a 15-second margin with Franco behind,” he said. “It’s still difficult to process what just happened.”

When asked whether he accepted Colapinto’s apology, Gasly paused for several seconds before answering. “I mean, crushed,” he said. “If you ask me, I’m not happy about today. I’ll take his apology.”

Gasly was more measured when discussing race leader George Russell’s slow restart, which bunched the field and contributed to the chaos. He pointed to the constraints of Formula 1’s new power units as a mitigating factor. “With the engines we have and the limitations we have with battery, harvest, etc., you’re not really that free in what you can do,” he said. “So I wasn’t really surprised for him to leave the restart quite late.”

Alpine now faces a significant recovery job in the constructors’ battle, with the team having squandered what Gasly himself called their best opportunity of the season to close the gap on Racing Bulls.