F1 | AlphaTauri, Guillaume Dezoteux: “It's an open fight with Alpine”

Heart-pounding season finale even at the back: AlphaTauri and Alpine are both on 112 points in the championship, and both want to secure fifth place in the constructors' championship. At Interlagos it was the French team that placed both drivers in the top ten, but Pierre Gasly, who seems to be in a state of grace, did not fail and overtook them both to take seventh place. A great shame for him, who had compromised his weekend in the Sprint Race - in Friday's qualifying he placed fifth, behind Mercedes and Red Bull - but Pierre still managed to hit the target, confirming his talent . A shame also for Yuki Tsunoda, who compromised his race at the start: the Japanese made contact with Stroll, significantly damaging his AT02, which lost its front wing on the track. Although the rookie proclaimed his innocence, the race direction gave him a five-second penalty, and so Yuki crossed the finish line in fifteenth place.

"We can be satisfied with today's result. Pierre started on the medium tires and after the Safety Car periods he managed to gain the position on Vettel, and then chase the little train in front. With the track being so hot, tire degradation was significant, so for us the fastest option was the two-stop strategy – explained Guillaume Dezoteux, head of performance of the Faenza team – after his first pitstop, Pierre had a really strong second stint which allowed him to open the gap with Ricciardo and Ocon, but we noticed that Alonso, who was going on a single stop, was also very fast. After our second pitstop, the objective was clear: we had to pass both Alpines on the track, taking advantage of the fresher tyres. The battle was really intense and, with Alonso giving DRS to Ocon, we couldn't get close enough to overtake in T1 and T4, the only two corners where overtaking is possible. The fight lasted six laps, but Pierre made two superb moves on both and managed to take seventh place. Yuki's race was compromised quite early, as she had an accident with Stroll. He suffered significant damage and this affected his race pace a lot and it's a real shame. After 19 races, we are still level on points with Alpine, which makes this an extremely exciting end to the season for us and our fans. The fight is on, we will make it!".