F1 star Pierre Gasly admits Liverpool VAR Fiasco gave Abu Dhabi flashbacks

Suraj Radia

• Updated: 5 Oct 2023 15:18 BST
• 3 min read

Formula One star Pierre Gasly has become the latest sports figure to give his take on the controversial VAR saga that has surrounded Liverpool after their loss to Tottenham last weekend.

Liverpool conceded a last-minute own goal in a 2-1 loss which saw them end the game with nine men, however all the focus was on the communication error leading to Jurgen Klopp’s side having a first-half opener incorrectly ruled out for offside.

REVEALED: The audio behind Luis Diaz's disallowed goal

In the F1 world, memories were cast back to the notorious final race of the 2021 season which saw Max Verstappen narrowly beat Lewis Hamilton to the world championship in contentious fashion after intervention from the officials led to a one-lap restart to decide matters.

READ MORE: Why Gasly compared VAR drama to F1

And Gasly admitted that the comparison to Abu Dhabhi came up between drivers ahead of this weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix, although he was sympathetic to the job at hand for referees.

“Liverpool was a bit of a surprise and definitely a talking point of the weekend,” Gasly said. “We had a conversation last night and there were comments made about Abu Dhabi 2021.

“It’s sport, referees also make mistakes. It’s tough to swallow when you’re on the wrong side of it. But it’s sport, even though it shouldn’t happen sometimes, it does.”

Premier League make decisions over VAR row

Liverpool are still dealing with the fallout of the decision, with Klopp stating this week that he believes replaying the game against Tottenham would be ‘fair’, although the Premier League have denied any possibility of it happening.

BRUTAL: Klopp mocked for Tottenham replay comments

The decision to disallow Luis Diaz’s goal was put down to ‘human error’, with VAR official Darren England believing the on-field decision was a goal, leading to play being restarted before it was discovered that a mistake had been made.

England will not referee any further Liverpool games this season but he has not been dropped by the Premier League despite the controversy.

Gasly, meanwhile, will race for Alpine this weekend in Doha with the Frenchman siting 11th in the world championship standings.