Pierre Gasly was left downbeat after being forced to revert back to the old specification Honda power unit for Qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix, which he felt was partly responsible for his early elimination.
The Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda driver will start sixteenth on the grid at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, finding himself on the wrong side of the cut off point by 0.049 seconds, and Gasly admitted it was frustrating to miss out on advancing by such a tiny margin after the engine switch between free practice and Qualifying.
“We were quite unlucky today, everything looked promising until FP3 where we had an issue with the power unit, so we changed back to an old version,” said Gasly. “Unfortunately, at a track like Canada where we know the straight line speed is really important, it cost us quite a bit.
“It made qualifying quite tough, and of course it’s always frustrating to miss out on Q2 with such a small margin.”
Despite being forced to switch to the old spec, Gasly was still able to take some positives out of running with the upgrade, and he cannot wait for the opportunity to run with the new engine.
“Looking at the positives, Honda made a really good step with the updates they brought to Canada which seems to work very well so far, I can’t wait to put them back on my car as soon as possible!” said the Frenchman.
Looking to race day, Gasly admits it will be tough to challenge for a third points finish of the season but he knows anything can happen around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve so he will be looking to stay out of trouble to capitalise on anything that comes his way.
“I think tomorrow will be a tough day… but we’ll try everything!” said Gasly. “Anything can happen in Canada, it’s a challenging track and it’s easy to make mistakes, so maybe there’ll be some opportunities for me.”
