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Pierre Gasly impressed to finish sixth in the Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying session. Given Lewis Hamilton five-place penalty, the young Frenchman will start the Bahrain Grand Prix from the fifth place, his personal best in Formula 1.
Shortly after the incredible result from the qualifying session, Gasly told Sky Sports: "We didn't expect it to be fair. The car was fantastic since the beginning of the weekend, we saw that we had some good potential but to be P6 in qualifying is just amazing!"
"In terms of pace in the long runs, we seem to be okay in terms of degradation. We know it's usually a bit tougher for us in the race with energy management and everything but the car seems to work fantastically this weekend." he continued". I think we have a great opportunity to score our first points, I really hope we can make it happen tomorrow." he added.
Gasly has also made comparisons with 2017, which was his first season in Formula 1: "Last year wasn't ideal, I didn't know anyone in the team and I came in the car straight for my first FP1 and had to deliver, so it was pretty tough" he said.
The Frenchman also made a brief statement about the Toro Rosso-Honda partnership. "The main thing is Toro Rosso is doing an amazing job with Honda. No one expected us to be competitive at the beginning of the year. It seems to work pretty well between Italians and Japanese and that's good to see." he added.
Aged 22, Pierre Gasly made his official debut in Formula 1 in the 2017 Malaysian Grand Prix when he finished 14th. His personal best in 2017 was a 12th place finish in the Brazilian Grand Prix. In the 2018 season opener, Gasly didn't manage to finish the race in Australia and is yet to score his first points in Formula 1.
Grand Prix of Belgium
C. Sainz jr
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Replies (7)
Login to replyJutlandia
Posts: 191
The main questions is, will Pierre keep calm in the start, and will the Honda PU last the race?
xoya
Posts: 583
"Yes" to the first and "no" to the second question.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
I think yes to both, but we'll see. One thing seems to be for sure: this guy looks like prime Red Bull material if Sainz remain at Renault and Ricciardo move to another team.
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
Seriously impressive. I was expecting much less. Let's see if the PU can finish the race tomorrow.
boudy
Posts: 1,168
Standout performance of qualifying. Could they beat the McLaren?
mcbhargav
Posts: 1,332
It would be interesting eitherway.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
In race pace? Not sure. Someone said that STR is more of a quali pace team than a race pace team. I guess we'll see tomorrow.