Pierre Gasly scored his first points of the season for Alpine

      Pierre Gasly scored the first points of the season for the Alpine team at the Bahrain Grand Prix, finishing seventh. His teammate Jack Duane also claimed a place in the top ten for most of the race, but dropped back to fifteenth place, and after the disqualification of Nico Hulkenberg, he rose to fourteenth place in the protocol.

      Pierre Gasly (7th): "I am very happy for the whole team and I am glad that thanks to the seventh place we earned the first points of the season. I lost a place on the last lap when I passed Max Verstappen, so I'm a little upset, but he won last week, so the result is still positive.

      It was great to start fourth and stay among the leaders in the first leg. I was a little unlucky with the timing of the safety car's exit to the track immediately after my second pit stop, when I switched to Hard tires. After the restart, I drove to the finish line and tried to keep Max behind, but the tires had already lost their effectiveness and I lost my position.

      Now all the attention is on the next stage in Jeddah, where I hope we will be competitive. The car is efficient in fast corners – I'm impressed with how well it worked here. Hopefully, it will be the same in Saudi Arabia next weekend, and we will be able to repeat this level of competitiveness."

      Jack Duane (15th, 14th after Nico Hulkenberg's disqualification): "Today's result is disappointing, but I'm glad we opened the scoring with Pierre's seventh place. The Soft and Medium tyres worked great, and after two laps on these compounds, I was in ninth place.

      In the final stretch, I put on a Hard tire to protect myself from possible attacks from rivals, but the safety car pulled out at the wrong time, which gave the others the opportunity to put on fresh and softer tires. It was difficult for me to keep them behind, problems started with the rear tires, and then I got a ticket for trespassing.

      We will continue to work based on the progress made this weekend. Now I'm already looking forward to the stage in Jeddah, which will start in a few days."

      Oliver Oakes, team principal: "The team leaves Bahrain happy, having earned the first points of the season. The result was made possible thanks to the efforts of all employees at the bases in Enstone and Weary.

      The departure of the safety car did not help us, as it left both of our riders vulnerable closer to the finish line. Pierre did his best to restrain Max. It's always unpleasant to lose a position on the last lap, but Pierre had a great race and earned the points we needed.

      Jack's pace at the start of the race and throughout the weekend was promising. Towards the finish, he started having problems with the Hard tires, so he rolled back on the last lap.

      We are leaving Bahrain with the points we have earned, but we know that Jeddah needs to improve in certain areas."