Pierre Gasly subject to early-morning drug test ahead of Sao Paulo GP

Pierre Gasly has revealed that he was subject to a random doping test ahead of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix weekend.

F1 drivers are, like other professional athletes, subject to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) anti-doping rules, with the FIA long complying with WADA's codes. 

This involves random drug tests through the year, including during and even before grand prix weekends.

Any missed test is treated as a failure, as happened with Manchester United footballer Rio Ferdinand in 2003, who was then banned from playing for eight months and fined £50,000 GBP. 

However, Gasly did not miss his test, as he revealed the test administrators woke him up at 6am on Thursday morning.

Asked if he was optimistic for Interlagos, given he has two podiums at the venue, Gasly indicated he was, as he revealed the drug test.

"You just made my day," he began to tell media, including RacingNews365.

"I got woken up at 06:00 for a doping test this morning, so I'm not in the best mood. 

"It was a bad night, but I love this place. It's the only track where I've had two F1 podiums, my first in 2019 and then in 2024 in the rain. And Sunday looks like it is going to rain, so I am very excited."

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Costly Mexico penalty for Gasly

Gasly also spoke about his costly penalty from Mexico City, where he was banished from the points positions after a severe penalty for not slowing under yellow flags.

The Alpine driver had finished 10th on the road, and was then promoted to ninth after Oscar Piastri's penalty for colliding with Arvid Lindblad to trigger the yellow flags, which caught Gasly, and team-mate Franco Colapinto, out. 

Gasly was handed a stop/go penalty for failing to slow, which was converted into a 30-second time penalty, and handed two penalty points on his superlicence, as he fell from ninth to 17th in the final results.

Colapinto was handed a 10-second penalty and one penalty point as he dropped from seventh to 15th - with Alpine's points haul wiped out.

Discussing the incident, Gasly took full responsibility for his failure to adhere to the flags.

"Ultimately, I didn't slow down enough, so I take full responsibility for the penalty," Gasly said.

"For the penalty, I think the circumstances of it were not very easy because the crash happened right in front of us, and I think the double yellow was right as I was at the apex of Turn 1, and I didn't really go back on the throttle, which makes me slow down, but obviously, it wasn't enough for the stewards to be comfortable with it. 

"So it was not great, and then after that, I think there was a panel in Turn 3 which showed green, yellow, green, yellow, so the panel didn't quite work, so it was not straightforward, but at the end of the day, it is just annoying that it cost points to the team. 

"I've always pushed myself to be strict on yellow flags because it is safety-related, so that's why I'm not going to argue the penalty, because in the situation, it was really safe.

"Lindblad's car was completely to the right; I could see where it was, but nonetheless, if you have a yellow flag in Monaco or Las Vegas, or these types of tracks, we should always slow down, and that's why, to me, I was wrong, and there is no arguing about it. 

"But the question of consistency, I think, is quite clear on what needs to be done and what I haven't done. 

"Now, we've got a good example of what is not tolerated in a race condition, and I just expect the same for any other driver going forward."