Singapore’s night race has already bitten Pierre Gasly. The Alpine driver will start Sunday’s Grand Prix from the pit lane after the team changed the A525’s setup under parc ferme — a late gamble after a rough qualifying that ended with his car crawling to a halt at Turn 9.
Gasly’s final run in Q1 unravelled in an instant. “Losing everything,” he radioed as the steering went heavy and the A525 coasted toward the barrier. He wrestled it around the corner, but there was no throttle left to save the lap. The team later cited an “oil protection cut,” and Gasly, understandably terse, wasn’t in the mood to unpack the details. “I’m not even going to go into details, I just had to stop the car,” he said. “Not good. I couldn’t even turn. I was putting all my strength just to get around Turn Nine, and then I had no throttle.”
He was classified 20th at the flag-fall of Q1 — until the FIA disqualified Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon from qualifying after post-session checks found their rear wing slot gap exceeded the 85mm limit when DRS was open. The pair had originally slotted 13th and 12th, respectively, before being excluded from the final order. That lifted Gasly to 18th on the grid on paper.
But Alpine then opted to break parc ferme to tweak the car, committing Gasly to a pit-lane start. The team issued a short line confirming the move: setup changes were made under parc ferme conditions, and the A525 will therefore launch from the lane.
It’s a trade-off: lose the grid slot, gain freedom. A pit-lane start allows Alpine to open up the toolbox — ride heights, suspension, even wing levels can be revisited to build a car that survives the bumps, keeps the tyres alive, and maybe claws through the field if the Safety Car gods oblige. Around Marina Bay, though, that’s still a tall order. Track position is king, overtaking is work, and strategy windows can slam shut with one ill-timed yellow.
For Gasly, it caps a scrappy Saturday that never really got going. The A525 looked on the edge from the start of Q1, and the steering issue was the final straw. Alpine will hope the reset gives him something more predictable for the long stint game under the lights.
As for the broader picture, the stewards’ call on Albon and Sainz reshuffled the middle of the pack, but Gasly’s route won’t intersect with them until the race unfolds. He’ll be chasing opportunity from the lane, eyes on clean air and long runs. If there’s chaos — and Singapore rarely disappoints — that choice to tear up parc ferme might age well. If it’s tidy up front, he’ll need patience and a very sharp pit wall.
Either way, his Sunday starts at the end of the pit road, visor down, reset button pressed.
