Gasly says he was 'one lap short' of catching Leclerc ahead after taking P9 in Austria

Pierre Gasly finished P9 in Austria and ensured he has scored points in every Grand Prix he's finished this season – but the AlphaTauri driver wasn't satisfied, as he said he could have caught Ferrari's Charles Leclerc at the Red Bull Ring if the race was just one lap longer...

Gasly started the Austrian GP from sixth and was one of four to begin the race on soft tyres. After completing his second stop on Lap 45, Gasly homed in on Leclerc but could not pass the Monegasque by the end of the race – being slowed on the final lap by the collision between Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.

READ MORE: Dramatic last lap collision with Raikkonen a ‘misunderstanding’ says Vettel

"I think… it was a good day but it was just that I could see I had Charles on target for the last couple of laps – I was catching massively – and I would have liked to try something and I probably came like one lap short from it," he said.

"I think our strategy starting on the soft, it wasn’t going to be an easy race – probably harder than we had planned – but it was still nice to make it work and come really close [to] the seventh position. All in all, I think it was good, but with the emotions after the race it’s always a bit more intense."

The result left AlphaTauri fifth in the championship and four points ahead of Aston Martin heading to the British Grand Prix, and while P9 wasn't Gasly's best finish of the season (he took P3 in Azerbaijan), he took a number of positives from Austria.

"But the good thing is we’re consistently scoring points," he said. "There are some positives to take away and we still showed some strong pace out there. We’re continuing to battle at the top of the midfield but it’s disappointing to not be finishing further up the grid today.

"We’ll review all the data tonight and then look forward to Silverstone, which is a track I love," he concluded.

Gasly has a mixed record at the British GP with two points scores in four appearances there – but with Sprint in the mix, the order could well get shaken up on July 16-18.