Pierre Gasly believes he had the perfect performance at the Dutch Grand Prix on his way to fourth place at Zandvoort. Gasly started from the second row of the grid after an impressive qualifying performance and held the position throughout the race. His result moved him up to eighth in the Drivers' Championship with nine events to go. "It was an amazing race," Gasly told RacingNews365.com and other select members of the press. "Fourth place for us is a small win for AlphaTauri, finishing in front of both Ferrari and both McLaren [cars] and right behind the three cars from the top teams. "It's been a fantastic performance. [We had a] strong qualifying, very good starts and very good pace through all the race – a perfect weekend for us." Gasly made a key overtake around the outside of Fernando Alonso at Turn 1 and says the team were concerned about his tyres in the middle of the race. In the end, the Frenchman came under no pressure from Charles Leclerc and was the first driver behind race-winner Max Verstappen, Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. "Most of the last 10 laps were a bit long," said Gasly. "The middle part of the race was all about managing Charles behind and the gap. "The team was really worried with the tyres, they were asking me to slow down the entire time, which was a bit annoying. "But I told him, 'OK, I'll just do my thing and then we'll be fine', and in the end it was fine. It was just very enjoyable to be in that position, to have the performance, to just push when I wanted and do exactly what I wanted inside the car. "There's a lot of positives to take from this weekend and it's exciting for the other races until the end of the year." Gasly will return to the scene of his maiden F1 victory at Monza this weekend, having won last year's Italian Grand Prix.
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