Twenty-four hours after losing a driver he called his closest friend in racing, Pierre Gasly raced in honour of Anthoine Hubert to ninth in the Belgian Grand Prix to claim points on his return to Toro Rosso.

The Frenchman, demoted from Red Bull during the summer break after struggling to get on terms with the team’s RB15, had looked set to come home 11th, having been passed in the late stages for the final points position by Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg.

READ MORE: Leclerc dedicates first F1 win to friend Hubert

But retirements for Antonio Giovinazzi and Lando Norris in the final two laps meant that Gasly came home P9, two places behind team mate Daniil Kvyat to cap Toro Rosso’s third double-score of the year, with the Frenchman having enjoyed some intense battles, most notably with Haas’s Kevin Magnussen.

“The second part of the race it was difficult to keep the other guys with the softer compound behind, but I gave everything I had,” said Gasly, who’d started on the softs himself before pitting for mediums relatively early on Lap 13. “We knew it would be difficult to fight. I gave everything I had, it was good, close racing and we managed to score two important points.”