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Red Bull's Pierre Gasly still fuming over 'stolen' GP2 Monza win

Red Bull Formula 1 protege Pierre Gasly was still seething about being robbed of Monza GP2 feature race victory by a safety error despite his sprint race podium

Gasly looked set for his fourth Saturday win in the last five rounds as he pulled clear of other drivers on the same early-stopping strategy in the Monza opener, while lapping quick enough to ensure those running longer would emerge far behind him when they pitted.

But when the safety car came out at half-distance because Arthur Pic had sent Sergio Canamasas into a roll at Lesmo 2, it mistakenly picked up Gasly as race leader even though he was only running sixth behind those yet to pit.

That allowed Raffaele Marciello, Gustav Malja and Antonio Giovinazzi to make their pitstops and emerge still in front while Gasly and the rest of the field were held back at safety car pace.

Giovinazzi then charged to victory, with Gasly only able to finish fourth.

Though he restored his championship lead over his Prema team-mate to 10 points by beating Giovinazzi to second in the sprint race, Gasly said Saturday's events overshadowed the whole weekend.

"The pace was fantastic from the first session to the last with P1 in practice and pole in qualifying, leading the race with everything under control," he said.

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"I could not even imagine that something like this could happen to steal a win we deserved.

"In the end I am disappointed because we feel we did everything right, the team made a great strategy and a great pitstop, we had a really fast car and everything was going well.

"We lost the win in an unfair way.

"It's still a good weekend with pole, P4 and P2, but I expected something better."

Gasly said the frustration of Saturday fired him up for Sunday's race and that it would be the same for the deciding rounds in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi.

"The main thing is to know we're fast, but when I think we could be leading the standings by 30 points obviously that's better than just 10 points," he said.

"We will come to Malaysia even stronger, with more motivation and determination to beat all the others, and it's going to be fun."

Giovinazzi is now Gasly's only realistic title rival in Prema's first year of GP2, with third-placed Russian Time driver Raffaele Marciello 36 points off the lead after Monza.

Though Giovinazzi admitted his Saturday win, achieved from the back row of the grid after a tyre pressure irregularity cost him his front row start, was fortuitous he was still delighted to leave his home event seven points closer to Gasly overall.

"It was just luck for us, but we took the luck and I am really happy with the result," he said.

"To gain seven points from Pierre is fantastic for me."

DRIVERS' STANDINGS

Pos Driver Points
1 Pierre Gasly 174
2 Antonio Giovinazzi 164
3 Raffaele Marciello 138
4 Sergey Sirotkin 115
5 Jordan King 112
6 Norman Nato 107


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