Pierre Gasly reveals nasty-sounding pain he suffered in closing laps of Saudi Arabian GP

Pierre Gasly’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix sounded worse than most with him struggling with internal pain in the closing stages of the race.

The AlphaTauri driver managed to secure a P8 finish around the Jeddah Street Circuit and, in doing so, earned his first points of the season after a retirement in the Bahrain Grand Prix the weekend before.

However, it’s safe to say that the Frenchman went through hell in the closing stages and did well to surely concentrate on the job in hand, with him saying he was in big pain and screaming inside the cockpit thanks to an intestine problem.

“I must say I am really happy,” Gasly said as he reflected on P8 post-race.

“It was very unlucky timing with the pitstop, when we boxed, as soon as I came out of the pits, I saw the safety car came out, so I dropped to 14th.

“We managed to make our way back to P8, so yeah, I think we can be happy and on my side, it’s been the most painful last 15 laps of my career.

“I don’t know what’s happened with my intestine, but I was dying inside the car. I was screaming because of pain and just happy the race is done, and we managed to secure P8.

“The last five laps, it was just about surviving. 

“I was just massively in pain so I was just counting the laps to end and that’s why I’m happy we managed to finish the race in P8.”

Gasly later revealed that he went to see the doctor to be checked out and that nothing serious was found, so it appears it was a bit of a mystery as to why he felt so bad.

The race in Saudi is a gruelling one, with warm conditions and an intense, high-speed, unforgiving track that the drivers have to deal with.

Whether that was the cause of Gasly’s issue, though, is hard to say and it’s probably best not to speculate.