Pierre Gasly admitted a sense of relief to reach the finish at the Japanese Grand Prix following two late dramas at Suzuka.
The Frenchman qualified a strong ninth for Toro Rosso and was running well before dropping to eighth as Charles Leclerc and Daniel Ricciardo made their way through in the closing laps.
At the same time, however, Gasly was also dealing with a wounded car which he explained was even making 130R a handful.
“We had a suspension problem at the end of the race which made it even more difficult,” he revealed via RaceFans.
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“I was just really afraid the last few laps, just all over the place. [130R] was so neutral every lap, like going through it with DRS wide open so that was really tough.
“So towards the end, it was a lot of hard work but I’m happy we made it in the points in Japan in front of all the Honda fans.”
The other drama came at the start of what should have been the final lap, when Gasly and Sergio Perez tangled at Turn 2, leaving the Mexican in the barrier.
An error with the chequered flag ultimately cost them nothing as the result was taken at the end of the penultimate lap and the stewards later deemed the clash a racing incident.
“That was really big, so I knew for sure it wasn’t ideal," the Toro Rosso driver said of the contact.
“I want to see first if I could have done something differently or if he could have done something different before blaming anyone.”
This last-lap lunge didn't go to plan 😱
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 14, 2019
Despite crashing out on the final lap, Sergio Perez was still classified in P9 - with Gasly P8 - after the race results were counted a lap early#JapaneseGP 🇯🇵 #F1 pic.twitter.com/JDBCzU7t06
For Perez though, the blame laid firmly in one corner.
“I think [it was] an unnecessary touch,” he said.
“[I] was ahead, gave him enough room, if you see his car is not even on the kerb, on fresh tyres, last lap of the race, I think it was very stupid what he did.
“And he got away with it. I think he was very lucky, but he could’ve ruined his race and lost the points.
“There’s a point where you’ve got to accept that you’ve lost the position. That manoeuvre, Ricciardo did it to me twice and if I kept going, I would’ve done the same [accident].”
