F1 News
Hamilton and Verstappen give Gasly plenty of praise for maiden F1 podium
Pierre Gasly stood alongside Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen for his first-ever Formula 1 podium. As a result of a penalty determined after the race, Hamilton wasn't officially with him in the top three, but that didn't stop the Formula 1 world champion dishing out the praise for the Toro Rosso driver. Brazilian Grand Prix winner Verstappen joined in.
Gasly was relegated back to Toro Rosso after a weak start to his time at Aston Martin Red Bull Racing but has since been grafting hard at Toro Rosso. This graft resulted in in a podium at the weekend as he became the second Toro Rosso driver to stand on the podium in 2019.
Hamilton was quick to highlight Gasly's story in 2019 which he says makes it all the more awesome.
"Especially through the experience and journey, he's gone through, from being in one team then to the next. To come through is really awesome," Hamilton said in the post-race press conference.
Verstappen, who won his third race of the season, started the year with Gasly as his teammate. He, more than anyone, knows the emotions Gasly has been though. He described Gasly's first podium as "incredible."
"How I rate Pierre’s podium? Incredible. Of course, he anyway already had a great race. I think you were best of the rest, right? That’s already a good result and then yeah, you just stay out of trouble and other people, of course, make mistakes and you profit from that. I think it’s great to see Pierre up here," Verstappen added.
"I think this year in the beginning maybe didn’t work out the way it should but, as you can see, I think Pierre is very strong and, at Toro Rosso again, he regrouped and he had already before this race a lot of good results. So, this is even, I think, a bigger motivation."