Pierre Gasly has described the 2018 United States Grand Prix as “long and difficult”, the Frenchman failing to score points from the back row of the grid.
Gasly had shown impressive pace in the improved Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda during qualifying but was demoted to the final row of the grid alongside his team-mate Brendon Hartley owing to a raft of changes with the team’s Honda power units.
Gasly would eventually finish the race in fourteenth and gain two positions following the disqualification of Esteban Ocon and Kevin Magnussen to trail his team-mate by three positions.
“It was a long and difficult Sunday,” said Gasly. “Starting from P19 we knew it would be a difficult race. We took some debris after the chaotic first lap and that damaged the floor a bit, after that I was just trying to do everything I could from inside the car, but there was a massive loss of grip for the rest of the race.
“We decided for a two stop strategy but there wasn’t much we could do today. The pace over one lap in Qualifying was really good so there’s positives to take away from the weekend.
“It’s just a shame we couldn’t fight properly this time, but I’m really hoping we can carry the pace into Mexico and have a clean Qualifying there to get a good result for the team.”
Toro Rosso stand fifteen points behind Racing Point Force India in the constructors’ standings and just four ahead of the Alfa Romeo F1 Team. Gasly himself sits fourteenth in the drivers’ table on twenty-eight points, five positions and twenty-four points ahead of his team-mate.
