Gasly left to rue his fortunes after race-ending collision with Tsunoda

Alpine driver Pierre Gasly was left to rue his fortunes after having retired from the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix due to a collision with his former team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.

There was a first-lap drama at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as former team mates Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda collided on the opening lap, with the incident prompting the Safety Car to come out as both hit the wall.

While Gasly was out of the running in the Alpine, Tsunoda managed to limp back to the pits but found himself at the back of the field. However, Red Bull mechanics investigated the back end of Tsunoda's RB21, and came to the conclusion that the Japanese driver need to retire from the race due to the damage.

The stewards investigated the incident between the Alpine and the Red Bull driver, and decided against handing out a penalty as "no party [was] wholly or predominantly to blame."

Despite his early retirement from the Jeddah race, Gasly praised his car and team for having improved their competitiveness over the last weeks.

“It’s never a nice feeling to end the race on Lap 1 after an incident. It has been a long time since I had a situation like this and it is a disappointing one for all of us at the team to take.

"I had a good line into Turn 4, I was aware that Yuki [Tsunoda] was there on the inside and I left enough space while keeping the car inside the white lines.

"It is an unfortunate outcome with the contact with him but that is racing and just the way it goes sometimes. There are many positives for us to take from the weekend.

"We know this track, on paper, is not our strongest but we managed to still be competitive and well in the mix for points. That gives us good confidence and we can build on these positives going into the next few races.”

His team-mate Jack Doohan elected to gamble, coming in for an early pit stop behind the Safety Car. However, the Aussie was unable to manage his tyres until the end of the 50-lap Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, and was forced to pit for a second time which dropped him down the order.

“It was a difficult day today and we faced various challenges throughout the race which meant we were not able to progress forward. We took a bold strategy to pit for the Hard tyres under the Safety Car on Lap 1, with the aim to stay out through to the end.

"Although the car felt comfortable in the corners, we were unable to overtake the cars in front and once we backed off to regroup, we were caught by those behind us once they pitted for fresh tyres on a different strategy. Ultimately, as a result the one stop proved difficult, and we pitted again to reach the end.

"We have a week off to rest and debrief ahead of Miami. We will spend some time in the simulator in the coming days and work together with the engineers to learn as much as we can from the weekend to continue to unlock more potential from the car," noted Doohan.