Franz Tost was pleased to see Pierre Gasly score a good haul of points for his Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda team in the Hungarian Grand Prix, with the Frenchman finishing the race in sixth to pick up eight points.
Gasly and team-mate Brendon Hartley had used the wet weather during Qualifying to both secure top eight starts at the Hungaroring, and the former was able to finish where he started thanks to a great first lap that saw him jump ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr., and edge away from the chasing pack thereafter.
The Frenchman was also able to withstand a late challenge from Kevin Magnussen, with the Haas F1 Team racer showing some strong pace, and Tost, the team principal of Toro Rosso, was full of praise for the way Gasly handled the race in Hungary and secured the much-needed points score.
“The team showed a good performance from the beginning of the weekend, Pierre was always around the top 10 in the practice sessions, which showed we had the pace to make it into Q3 and to score points,” said Tost.
“Yesterday, the weather conditions helped us a little bit and the team and drivers did a really good job to get the most of out the session, resulting in us lining up in sixth and eighth position on the grid.
“Pierre made a very good start, while Brendon got caught in a battle between Sainz and [Nico] Hülkenberg meaning he dropped to ninth after the first lap. Pierre had a fantastic race where he controlled the tyres and the fuel consumption, and was able to increase the pace at will, which he highlighted towards the end of the race when Magnussen attempted to close the gap.”
Tost felt Hartley too would have scored good points had he had a better first lap but overall he was pleased to head into the summer break having scored points in the past two races.
“Brendon was stuck behind Sainz and [Romain] Grosjean, but was able to keep Hülkenberg behind him,” said Tost. “I think with a better first lap he would have had the pace to finish in the points.
“Sixth position is a really good result and very important for the team as we didn’t score many points in the past few races. I’d like to thank the strategists, all the engineers and the mechanics for their incredibly fast pit stops.
“Now we have the summer break to look forward to, and with all of us recharged we will go to Spa and push for the second half of the season.”
