Russian GP - Pierre's Debrief

After a very disappointing reunion at Monza a fortnight ago, Pierre will be keen to get going again at last.

The weekend got off to a good start with FP1 in 6th and FP2 in 3rd at 1:33.845.

Pierre: "It's been a positive day in terms of performance, this car seems to be working well here so far and that's a good start to the weekend. Although the performance is there, I'm still not 100% comfortable with the balance inside the car, so we have a few points that we can take away and improve on tonight. We know that Charles and Max are drawing race penalties, so there are certainly opportunities for us this weekend. Our main focus though is on our own package and maximising what we can do to help in our tight midfield battle."

Pierre has made a habit of qualifying for Q3 but didn't really exercise it in Sochi, which could partly be attributed to the fact that he was given used tyres in Q2, as he explained further in the quote below after finishing qualifying in P12.

Pierre: "I don't have much to say at the moment, I think we had the pace to get through to Q3 easily, so I'm obviously frustrated. In Q1, I was very quick in these conditions, I felt comfortable in the car and I was able to attack straight away. However, for Q2, I stuck to one set of tyres, which was completely used up by the end of the session. I think that was a big mistake on our part, but I'll have to talk to the team to find out more about what happened today. It's a missed opportunity not to get through to Q3, but now we have to look ahead to tomorrow and see what we can do to make up the deficit."

On race day, Pierre started 11th instead of 12th after Valtteri Bottas took a penalty for changing the car's powertrain. Fortunately, and props to the AlphaTauri team, as there was no sign of a repeat of Monza. His team-mate Yuki Tsunoda cut the barriers at the start of the race. After a good start to the race, Pierre stopped and switched to medium tyres on lap 33.

The rain that was forecast at the seaside just before the start of the race meant that the end of the race was near as it started to rain on lap 45. Pierre struggled to get into the points after that despite his best efforts. The rain also made the track extremely slippery, as Alpha Tauri and Pierre's gamble didn't pay off, resulting in a slight spin on medium tyres before stopping and switching to intermediates before the final lap.

Finishing at P13 and here's what Pierre had to say

"It hasn't really been a good weekend for us, we missed a big opportunity yesterday in qualifying and again today we made the wrong decision with the slicks, which unfortunately meant we finished outside the points. The pace was strong here and I think we had a good first stint, but we just didn't take advantage of all the opportunities we were given this weekend, which is a real shame. We'll have to review everything from now on and work out how to make the most of these conditions in the future. It's a weekend to forget, but we have a good team and I'm confident we can bounce back at the next one."