Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda had their worst weekend of the season so far at the Italian Grand Prix, after both cars failed to make the end of the race with mechanical gremlins.
Pierre Gasly’s weekend had started beautifully, the Frenchman had yet another strong qualifying, before everything that could go wrong, went wrong. Gasly crashed out of sprint qualifying on the opening lap at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza meaning he would have to start the main race from the back of the grid. The team had hoped they’d repaired Gsaly’s car but unfortunately the Frenchman knew something was wrong after the first few laps, where the team decided to retire the car.
A disappointing end to what had looked to be another strong round for Gasly, the Frenchman was disappointed but is already focused on the Russian Grand Prix.
“We had a brilliant start to the weekend, with another strong Qualifying performance, but then after yesterday’s Sprint Qualifying it’s all been very disappointing. We knew there was something wrong in the initial laps, but we weren’t able to get it fixed before the race. We don’t know the exact issue yet but unfortunately, we had to retire the car. It’s our home race so it’s hard to lose both cars here today. We know that the performance of the car is there, so we need to just work hard and prepare for the next race.”
“We need to turn the page” – Yuki Tsunoda
Yuki Tsunoda had yet another weekend to forget, the Japanese driver who was eliminated in qualifying one on Friday finished in a low sixteenth place in Saturday’s sprint race.
The rookie was hoping to have a better Sunday, instead it was over before it had even begun! In similar fashion to Gasly the team found a mechanical issue on Tsunoda’s lap to the grid. The team did all they could to repair the mechanical issue but unfortunately couldn’t do it in the time available.
Tsunoda was really hoping to get more laps behind the wheel at Monza but is aware there was nothing himself or the team could do. He is now getting himself prepared for Russia.
“On the lap to the grid we found a mechanical issue with the car. We tried to fix this on the grid, but it wasn’t possible, so we brought the car back into the garage to try and sort it ahead of the race. My mechanics did a great job trying to get it fixed, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to start. It’s tough not to get more laps and experience in this car, but we need to turn the page and my full focus will now be on Russia.”
