Pierre Gasly offers Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris boost in 'realistic' Alpine fight

Pierre Gasly believes the fact that Alpine was able to race with Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris in the Italian GP was a positive sign in a "realistic" race for the shock pole-sitter.

Gasly stunned Monza by roaring to his first career pole in qualifying, with it being the first for Alpine, the first for Team Enstone since Fernando Alonso at the 2009 Hungarian GP, and the first for a French driver since Jean Alesi at the 1997 Italian GP. 

Gasly initially held the lead off the line and lead the first lap, but on the run to Turn 1 on the second lap, George Russell powered by in the Mercedes, with Gasly promptly falling back into a squabble with the McLarens of Norris and Oscar Piastri and the Ferrari of Hamilton. 

Ultimately, the 109th different pole-sitter in F1 history finished in seventh place, behind both Mercedes', Max Verstappen's Red Bull, both McLarens, and Hamilton. Gasly was 8.3s behind fourth-placed Norris at the flag, and 2.7s behind sixth-placed Hamilton. 

Reflecting after a superb weekend, Gasly felt the fact that Alpine was able to fight with the faster McLarens and Ferraris was a positive sign from a race seventh was the best result he was likely to achieve. 

"The part of me that is realistic is very satisfied," Gasly told media, including RacingNews365. 

"Basically, starting on pole, you must have a side of you which thinks: 'Okay, what can happen over 53 laps, this and that', but to be honest, before the race, we knew that the pace in the race would be extremely difficult to stay up there and fight with the top guys. 

"I'm very happy with the two starts. We took two great starts, managed to keep the lead on the first one, great on the second battle, slightly stayed in the train the first 10 laps, which was really good, battling with Lando won the last two races, so from where we come from, it's very positive, and finishing three seconds behind Lewis was the same, he's been fighting for podiums this year, so I'm not going to be disappointed with that. 

"Obviously, the end result is P7, and you'll wish you could get slightly more out of it. But I think overall we just got to take all the positives from the weekend because there were many and try to build from that.

"I knew if I kept the lead out of the Parabolica, George would pass me, so it was guaranteed, so I wasn't really surprised. But at the end of the day, we've just got to learn from all the situations as a team. I think it was quite a long time since we found ourselves up front and we still managed to handle it very well. 

"It was the best car I've had this year, and the most consistent. There are some things that explain it, and some other stuff which we've got to understand. 

"I have a couple of ideas on why it will be, but obviously we need more tracks, and Monza is very special, very unique. I'm sure the next few days will be important to try to understand a bit more about this performance and try to repeat it more on the coming weekends."