Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly qualified twelfth place ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, and will line up eighth after all grid penalties are applied for the several drivers that have had power unit and gearbox replacements this weekend.
Gasly was pleased with his result in Spa, and felt that he and the team were able to extract maximum performance around Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. He added that there is, however, still pace to be found in the AlphaTauri as the season progresses.
“It was a good Quali today, I’m really happy about my lap and how the car performed. The balance was great, and I felt like we maximised the package. We’re still not showing our full potential, so we’ve got some work to do as a team to make it into the top 10, but today I think we managed to get the best out of the car.
With his top ten starting position, Gasly will want to break his streak of finishes outside of the points on Sunday. He said that the main challenge he’ll face on race day will be to maintain his position against the speedy front-runners that were relegated to the back due to penalties.
“We start P8 tomorrow, thanks to the penalties of some drivers, so we’ll have to make the most of that opportunity come the race. There’s going to be some fast cars behind us trying to move forward, so it’s going to be a hard race, but we’ll try our best to hold our position and to stay in the points.”
“I had a big snap and then, further in the lap, I went off.” – Yuki Tsunoda
Team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, on the other hand, was disappointed with the result of his qualifying, having finished nineteenth. He will be promoted to a starting position of thirteenth after penalties.
Tsunoda felt he had the potential for a top ten result, confident in the car’s performance throughout this weekend’s practice sessions. Unfortunately, a “big snap” during his final attempt paired with a lock-up that wrecked his last two turns led to his Q1 elimination.
He will be looking to take advantage of Spa’s passing opportunities to try and make a step forward on race day.
“It’s been a really disappointing day. I’ve felt quite happy in the car so far this weekend and I think we were competitive enough to comfortably get through to Q2 and even be in with a chance of Q3.
“Unfortunately, that didn’t happen today – I had a big snap and then, further in the lap, I went off. There are opportunities to pass here in Spa so hopefully we can try and make our way forward.”
