Pierre Gasly says a severe case of stomach pain left him "screaming" in agony during the closing stages of Sunday's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The AlphaTauri driver crossed the finish line P8, scoring his first points of the season, but the end of the race couldn't come too soon for the Frenchman.
"The last five laps, it was just about surviving," explained Gasly.
"I was just massively in pain so I was just counting the laps to end. That’s why I’m happy we managed to finish the race in P8."
Gasly said the intensity of the pain was at its peak under braking and in left-hand corners.
"I had the feeling like every left turn there was someone stabbing me on the inside the intestine, so it was not nice.
"It’s been the most painful last 15 laps of my entire career. I don’t know what’s happened with my intestine, but I was dying inside the car. I was screaming because of pain."
Despite the torment, Gasly was happy overall with how his evening had panned out in Jeddah where he was AlphaTauri's only representative, with teammate Yuki Tsunoda sidelined even before the start of the race by a power unit issue.
Like early race leader Sergio Perez, Gasly had pitted just before the first safety car period, which sent him down the order to P14 from where he battled back into the top ten.
"It was very unlucky timing with the pit stop," he said.
"We boxed and literally as I came out of the pit, I saw the safety car came out. I dropped to P14 after that and managed to make our way back to P8. So we can be happy and on my side."
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