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• Pierre Gasly won the 2020 Italian GP.
• Gasly was replaced at Red Bull by Alex Albon in 2019.
• Gasly is yet to win in Formula 1 race.
• For more motoring stories, go to www.Wheels24.co.za
Pierre Gasly became the 106th winner of a Formula 1 race when he took victory at the 2020 Italian Grand Prix. In a way, it is sweet redemption on Red Bull Racing for dropping him midway through the 2019 season and replacing him with Alex Albon.
Gasly and Albon effectively swapped seats, with Gasly rejoining the Toro Rosso team - Red Bull's B-team. At the start of the 2020 season, Toro Rosso was renamed to AlphaTauri, with Gasly and the returning Daniil Kvyat making up the team's driver line-up. For Gasly, the new season got off to a strong good start as he is trying to regain the Red Bull seat he lost in 2019.
For Albon, however, things have gone from promising to scrambling for a top ten position in each race. Here's how Gasly and Albon compare throughout 2020 so far.
The first eight races
For both these two drivers, 2020 has not been the most fruitful of seasons, with several poor results coming in for either driver. For Albon, though, the sting is a bit worse, given that he is driving the second fastest car on the grid.
Albon's best result is the fourth-placed he registered at the second race of the season at the Styrian GP. The following races saw him register a few fifth and eighth place positions, with Italy seeing Albon finish in 15th place - second last of the 16 finishers.
READ: What a race! Pierre Gasly wins Italian GP, becomes first French winner since 1996
For Gasly, his relatively poor results leading up to his win can be excused, given that he is driving a car that is inferior to the Red Bull. Yet, Gasly often finds himself in the mix of great on-track battles. Over the first seven races, his worst results were a 15th place at the Styrian GP and a DNF at the following race in Hungary. For all his other entries, he finished inside the top 10 - that's more than can be said of Albon.
And though the win at the Italian GP, the eighth race of the season, came via 'inheritance', Gasly is a registered F1 winner, which is more than can be said of Albon.
On points, Albon leads Gasly on 48 points to 45, and both drivers' average finishing position is seventh place.
