The potential role Yuki Tsunoda played in Pierre Gasly’s Las Vegas Grand Prix engine failure

Pierre Gasly suffered a disastrous Saturday during the Las Vegas Grand Prix when he retired from the race just a few laps into the race.

The Frenchman had hopes of recording a fourth straight Q3 appearance and managed to achieve this, while also earning a second-row start from P3 on the grid.

Much to the elation of his team, whose good run of races appeared to continue after Alpine achieved a double podium in Sao Paulo which propelled them to sixth in the Constructors’ Championship.

Gasly was aiming for a top-five finish and although he lost out to the Ferrari’s at the start, things went from bad to worse when he reported a loss of power over the team radio. After frantically reporting that he saw smoke coming out of the back of the car, he pitted and retired from the race.

While the root cause of the blow-up has not been revealed by Alpine, data unearthed by Formula Data Analysis on X (formerly Twitter) from Gasly’s Alpine shows that Yuki Tsunoda may have played a role in the retirement.

How Yuki Tsunoda may have played a role in Pierre Gasly’s retirement

Gasly was running directly behind Tsunoda’s Visa CashApp RB fighting for P15 having made his first pit stop of the day.

The Alpine driver was entering the slipstream of the Japanese driver, when he reached speeds of up to 224mph in the DRS zone.

According to the data, Gasly’s power unit reached 12,937rpm in eighth gear and then lost all power. Cut to the camera shots of smoke coming out of the back of his Alpine just moments before he retired.

While it’s not a definitive answer, it gives some insight into what might have happened given teams were close on cooling due to the long straights and not wanting to sacrifice straight-line speed.

Esteban Ocon forced to complete drive-through after Alpine strategy gaffe

Things did not improve for Alpine when Esteban Ocon was forced to complete a drive-through after Alpine committed a strategy blunder.

Ocon pitted a few laps before Gasly after being told to do the opposite of Nico Hulkenberg, but the team was not ready for him when he entered the pit lane.

READ MORE: Alpine driver Esteban Ocon’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend

This resulted in him having to pass through the pits and rejoin having lost 12 seconds, effectively completing a drive-through penalty.

He rejoined the race but could only manage P17 at the chequered flag, and with Haas scoring points it put them ahead of the French manufacturer again in the battle for sixth in the Constructors’ Championship.