Why Pierre Gasly won't be "disappointed" with P7 from pole for Alpine

Usually a Formula 1 driver starting from pole position and tumbling down to seventh would be devastated, but that simply wasn't the case for Pierre Gasly at Monza. Sure, the Frenchman dared to dream about a podium when the lights went out, but both he and his Alpine team knew the raw numbers just did not add up for a full 53-lap distance.

Let's be honest: the A526 was an absolute beast over one lap on Saturday. Unfortunately, it was always going to struggle to hold off the likes of Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren, and Ferrari once the lights went out for real. The retirement of Charles Leclerc and a tough race for Liam Lawson opened up a couple of spots in the top eight, letting the 2020 Italian Grand Prix winner secure a respectable P7, comfortably clear of the rest of the usual midfield runners and finishing just 27.3 seconds behind race winner Kimi Antonelli.

"I mean, the part of me that is realistic is very satisfied," said Gasly. He pointed out his two brilliant starts, managing to keep the lead initially and fighting right in the correct train for the opening 10 laps against Lando Norris, who won the last two races. He crossed the line right on the tail of a Ferrari and only three seconds behind Lewis Hamilton, leaving him entirely satisfied with the afternoon's work.

"The last 24 hours has been extremely fun and extremely enjoyable with all the energy, the motivation in the garage, the reaction of the whole team," Gasly added, noting they finished 18 seconds ahead of Arvid while keeping the gap to the cars ahead smaller than the gap to the car behind. He praised the steps Alpine is making across car performance, execution, and weekend preparation, reminding everyone that the team's last pole was back in 2009. Imagine what that means for the staff back at Enstone.

Meanwhile, it was a wildly eventful race for Gasly's teammate Franco Colapinto. The Argentinian made a stunning initial start to surge up to fourth before the red flag, then boldly passed Max Verstappen at the restart to briefly grab third place in a dream sequence.

Then came the heartbreak. A sudden mistake through Turn 5 and Turn 6 sent him barreling through the gravel, dropping him all the way down to P15 and leaving him with a lot of damage before a gritty recovery drive salvaged P9 and a couple of precious points.

"I just lost the car completely in Turn 5, [Turn] 6, a bit out of nowhere," Colapinto admitted. "You feel so strong, and suddenly fighting with the top teams, you get very motivated very quickly, and a mistake like that throws it all away." Experiencing wheel-to-wheel combat with the sport's biggest names for the first time made the error sting even more, but it is an expensive lesson for the youngster to carry forward.