“If Lando and Max wanna battle it out behind, that’d be great”: Pierre Gasly looking to capitalize on strong qualifying

Pierre Gasly believes a better result than fourth place could be on the cards at the Bahrain GP but only if Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, who start behind him, engage in a hard-fought battle. Speaking to media including Sportskeeda, after qualifying, the Alpine driver admitted that while the result was encouraging, he remains realistic about the team’s race pace.

Norris and Verstappen, starting sixth and seventh respectively, have a history of close on-track battles, and Gasly light-heartedly suggested that if the title contenders clash again, it might help him hold onto his fourth place.

Jokes aside, Gasly acknowledged that both McLaren and Red Bull are likely quicker in race conditions, making it a challenge to defend his position. With Alpine yet to score a point this season, he stressed the importance of converting the strong qualifying result into a solid haul of points — something the team desperately needs to kickstart their 2025 campaign.

Asked by Sportskeeda what his expectations were going into the race, the Alpine driver said:

“If Lando and Max wanna battle it out behind for the first few laps, that will be great. No I mean jokes apart, we know these guys have quite a lot of pace in the race. So yea we expect it to be around nine tenths in quali, we did better than that. Tomorrow we will try to make the best use of that track position at the start and we expect a very different race than Suzuka. So I will know where that will put us in the end or if we are clearly in the match for the points. It is important as a team that we get this race right.”

---

Pierre Gasly reckoned an improved Alpine car helped with his confidence in qualifying

Pierre Gasly believes that key improvements to the car’s settings and a few crucial elements played a significant role in his standout qualifying performance in Bahrain. The Alpine driver said he felt confident in the car throughout every session, marking a stark contrast to the team’s early-season struggles.

While Alpine expected to be more competitive, Gasly admitted they hadn’t anticipated being just three hundredths of a second off pole. The 29-year-old credited his growing comfort with the car for allowing him to build momentum with each lap. He described his Q2 and Q3 runs as “smooth and effortless,” a welcome change after the difficulties they’ve faced so far this season.

Asked by Sportskeeda where he found that lap time in the Alpine, Gasly said:

“Good work from everyone inside the team. You know it was a very strong lap in Q2, felt very good. And Q3 was very strong, like I knew straight away, after the last corner I knew that this would put me in a very good place. But nowhere near close to thinking that it was going to put us like four hundredths [of a second] from the top three, and only three tenths off pole position. So I am just very happy for the whole team.”

“We were really improving, even in Q1 I was feeling very comfortable in the car and was getting mini snaps in many place. We have changed a few things, like the outlap, some of the settings I could do in the car and I would just manage to improve in every session run by run. So extremely happy and yeah we need this. We know its been extremely tight, we haven’t scored any points this year. We’ve been on the backfoot and the back of the mid-field, and in this week we have managed to put on a very strong performance so far,” he added.

Alpine currently sits at the bottom of the constructors’ standings alongside Sauber, with neither team scoring a point so far this season. Following several organizational changes in 2024, the French manufacturer had aimed to mount a stronger challenge by the end of that campaign — a goal they briefly achieved with a double podium in Brazil that elevated them from ninth to sixth in the standings, ahead of much of the midfield.

Pierre Gasly, who has taken on the role of lead driver at Alpine, struggled to extract the maximum from the car across the first three rounds of the 2025 season. However, a post-qualifying penalty for the Mercedes drivers has promoted him to fourth on the grid for the Bahrain GP — marking Alpine’s best starting position since 2024 and a much-needed boost for both Gasly and the team.