Pierre Gasly clarifies Alpine radio 'silence' after backlash from Monaco heartbreak

Pierre Gasly has clarified the sequence of events after the Monaco Grand Prix in which he appeared to be unaware of penalties which cost him his podium finish.

Gasly finished third on the road in Monte Carlo, but a pair of five-second time penalties for speeding in the pit-lane dropped the French driver down to seventh in the final results.

Multiple drivers received the sanction in the Principality for trying to shorten the pit-lane, but it appeared that on the in-lap, as Gasly visibly celebrated his first podium of the season, his Alpine team did not inform him of the penalties, which promoted Isack Hadjar to third.

Alpine subsequently lodged a Right of Review with the FIA stewards, the investigation of which will be held on Thursday afternoon ahead of the Barcelona-Catalunya GP, as Gasly, who hinted that the team had been able to produce the required "new evidence", explained what had happened on the in-lap, and on the following days he described as the "hardest" from a sporting perspective of his entire career.

"I was aware at that time [of the penalty], it's just running extremely high on emotions after a perfectly executed race," Gasly told media, including RacingNews365.

"I was really proud of the performance we had with the team, and crossing the line in third, which should be awarded with the podium, and it was my way of having my moment.

"That's how I wanted to deal with the situation, to share any type of emotion I had.

"I think to me it's fair to say this was the hardest day I've ever had in F1, and in my sports career, and I am talking sporting-wise, and not with 2019 and Anthoine [Hubert's death].

I will say it was definitely the hardest to deal with, because I put in a very strong performance, and as a kid, I grew up watching Formula 1, the iconic Monaco Grand Prix, and as a French person, it has a special meaning to me, and I've never had the chance to go on that podium.

"I know I'm someone who is quite emotional, but dealing with all the emotion I felt after the race, for me, was extremely odd and intense, and if you drive a car that gives you the possibility to finish on the podium every other weekend, it's slightly different. 

"You move on quickly, come here, fight for the podium, and eventually win. I've not been in a position to have that car yet underneath me, so I know when the chance is there, it might be once a year, might be once every two years, might be two, three times a year, but once it's there, I want to make sure that I'm the one grabbing it. 

"It was a special place with special results, and it was definitely the toughest moment, which also made me learn about myself and how to cope with that, but it was not a nice moment.

"I think in terms of performance, we executed everything perfectly with the team and I managed to pass Lando [Norris] at the first start and I managed to pass Isack on the second start, so, I think in terms of performance, we can be very proud of what we've achieved during that weekend.

"I definitely needed these few days to kind of calm down. I mean, Monaco is already very intense as a weekend on and off the track; the driving takes a lot of energy. 

"You run extremely high on adrenaline, so mix that with the situation itself, it was quite a lot to process on Monday and Tuesday, but now I'm feeling in a good place to really have 100% of my head into this new race weekend."