Before beating George Russell to pole position at the Italian Grand Prix, Pierre Gasly has revealed he also beat the Mercedes driver in a game of online chess.
Gasly took the first pole position of his nine-year Formula 1 career on Saturday at Monza after setting a lap time 0.060 seconds faster than Russell in second place.
Speaking immediately after the shock result, Russell revealed he had lost to Gasly in a game of chess shortly before they took to the track.
"Firstly, massive congrats to Pierre because that's an incredible performance," he said.
"We were actually finishing a game of chess about 15 minutes before qualifying, and he beat me there."And I thought, 'Well, I think I'll beat you in qualifying,' and here we are: he's ahead of me again. So huge congrats to him."Gasly said the two drivers had played chess twice in the last 24 hours after challenging each other to game during Friday's driver briefing at Monza."Well, I mean, since the briefing last night, I figured out that he's obsessed with chess," Gasly said. "I am obsessed with chess. We have a few in the paddock, a few drivers, to be obsessed with it. So, we've just exchanged our ID on Chess.com and we've had a little game going on, one yesterday, another one that carried on to today."And I must say, before the quali[fying], I felt pretty confident because I was picking piece after piece. And, yeah, again, for the fun story, Ben [Thorne, Gasly's performance coach] told me, 'Well, you're getting George here, but he's going to get you in a few minutes [in qualifying].' 'I was like, "Yeah, f--- off.'"Turned out that, yeah, it worked out well. So, yeah, it's been fun. I think we are very competitive and, whether it's on the track or off the track, we do need to find our little battles everywhere we can."- Alpine's Pierre Gasly stripped of Monaco GP podium after McLaren and Red Bull win appeal
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- Oscar Piastri hit with three-place grid penalty after impeding in qualifying for Italian Grand PrixGasly said he had entered qualifying with no expectation of fighting for pole position."Monza is a bit of a unique track," he added. "We know it, but, I mean, no, it definitely exceeded all our expectations. But since this morning, I think the pace has been better. We managed to make a good step, you know, from P3 to quali, and I think slightly bigger than the other guys around us."Yeah, straight from Q1, you know, we were a bit surprised to see us up there, as in mind, you know, our target was Q3. But then I think I was P1 in Q1, then P4 in Q2. I didn't want to get too excited, but then first run in Q3, I think I was third again and then I felt, 'Okay, I really have a shot at it.'"And as I said, it's probably the first time I really get a true chance and, yeah, I tried to leave everything I had out there. It was quite hectic through Ascari and Parabolica. I don't think there was definitely much in there and, crossing the line, I knew it would be one of these laps that would be rewarded, but to the point to get the pole position, I didn't expect that."So, yeah, very, very pleased."
