Formula 1 is a sport that is full of surprises. Just look at yesterday’s Sprint race’s result which saw Pierre Gasly on the podium out of the blue. We are not taking anything away from Gasly’s ability behind the wheel but not many would’ve imagined the Frenchman to finish 3rd in shortened race. A pleasant surprise for everyone, however, it was simply the goal for the weekend for the Alpine man. For Gasly an incredible weekend throughout was always the goal as he aimed to uphold the integrity of the last three words of his late friend Anthoine Hubert.

Back in 2019, the world of Formula Racing suffered another massive shock when Hubert tragically passed away. Hubert succumbed to his injuries sustained at the 2019 F2 Belgian feature race. The Frenchman was one of three drivers who had massive shunts during the race. However, Hubert’s accident was the only one that proved fatal.

Shortly before his death, Hubert sent a message to his dear friend Gasly as he suffered a setback in his career. After Gasly was demoted to AlphaTauri (then-Toro Rosso), Hubert sent a three-worded message to his friend. As quoted in the Ellie Does F1 blog, to motivate his friend Hubert sent Gasly a message saying “Prove them wrong”.

This is exactly what Gasly set out to do according to his note on the flowers he put out for his friend in his homage to him and Dilano van ’t Hoff.

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The tribute did not end there, however. The Frenchman also remembered his friend during his post-sprint interview.

Pierre Gasly remembers his friend during his emotionally changed post-sprint interview

The Frenchman, thanks to smart and timely pit calls crossed the finish line third in the Saturday race. This definitely came as a boose, especially after two back-to-back double DNFs for Alpine. Gasly will want to repeat this outcome but starting from P12, it’ll be easier said than done.

Regardless, during the post-sprint race interview, Gasly was emotionally charged but did not forget his friend.

He said, “It does feel very special to do it here at Spa. Obviously, a thought for Anthoine (Hubert). I’m just extremely pleased for the whole team because it hasn’t been the smoothest start of the year, but we managed to put it together here today.”

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This was an incredible result for the Frenchman and the team. However, despite the adrenaline pumping, he did not forget his friend. Let’s hope Gasly can keep upholding Hubert’s words throughout his career.