The Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda team had a disappointing qualification at the 2021 Spanish Grand Prix. Both drivers failed to make it into the final session of qualification for the first time this season.
Pierre Gasly only managed to finish in twelfth position and Yuki Tsunoda finished in a disappointing sixteenth position at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya circuit. The Italian team’s struggles continued from the previous race as the drivers struggled for grip at this track.
Claudio Balestri, the Chief Engineer of Vehicle Performance, explained the struggles of the team as follows: “Today’s sessions have highlighted just how tight the midfield is this year and how a small difference in lap time can make such a big difference to a driver’s final position. In FP3 both drivers showed good lap times and we found that the changes to the car set-up that we’d made overnight were positive.
“To be fast on this track you need to find a good compromise between the sectors, so this was our main focus before Qualifying. In Q1 Pierre completed just one lap on the option tyre and easily made it through to Q2. On the other side of the garage, Yuki was struggling a bit more with his car and he wasn’t able to enter Q2, missing out by just one hundredth.
“We had a similar situation in Q2 with Pierre, who narrowly missed reaching Q3 by a few hundredths. Our focus now turns to tomorrow’s race – we believe our long-run pace on Friday appeared competitive, so we hope that we can finish the race in the points.”
On this hard to overtake track, the AlphaTauri team will find it hard to progress as the drivers from their rival teams have qualified ahead of them.
