Pierre Gasly: « We will be able to fight » after his good qualifying session in Baku

With a complicated testing day on Friday for Alpine, the French team can be happy to have been able to place one of its cars in Q2, that of Pierre Gasly. “We were expecting to be 17th and 18th and in the end, we manage to get into Q2. I’m really very happy, I manage to do two good laps where I put everything [needed] together,” advanced the Frenchman speaking to Canal+.

With the 4th best time in Q1, Pierre Gasly extended his Saturday with Q2, during which he achieved the 13th time. A nice performance despite a small gearbox issue. “It’s a shame in Q2 in my best lap, when reaching 8th gear on the straight, we need to check what’s happening, but we had a slow gear change that made me lose a little over a tenth in the final straight. I think it would have been close with Tsunoda. But it wouldn’t have changed the world phase,” he said.

Despite this small hiccup, Gasly wishes to focus on the positive considering the difficulties of the French team since its arrival in Azerbaijan: « In any case, what I look at is the progress we made during the weekend. We started very, very far back and we finished within 1.1 seconds of the pole position on a track that is not easy for us and not suitable for the car. We did the best we could even though it remains complicated.

On the lookout for the race

Starting from 13th place on the grid, Pierre Gasly can hope to fight for the Top 10 during the race. Alpine will be able to rely on the good pace of its cars, glimpsed during the tests. « During the long runs yesterday, it seemed to be a little bit better than during the qualifying runs. The most important thing was to position ourselves for tomorrow, try to be in the mix. We know that anything can happen here so we have to try to get off to a good start, be in the right group and try to take advantage of the opportunities. » insists Gasly.

The number 10 knows that it will be complicated but wants to believe in it despite the competition. « There are some really fast cars. We can see that the Williams are really good. But we will try our best tomorrow, we know that anything is possible and we are in a position where we will be able to fight » concluded the French driver.

Ocon less successful.

Esteban Ocon did not experience the same success as his teammate. Having had FP1 and FP3 sessions cut short due to power unit issues, the Normand was only able to rack up laps during FP2. Unfortunately, he touched the wall during his quick lap in Q1.

This mistake also caused a yellow flag that hindered Lando Norris in his lap, the Briton missing out on Q2. With the 20th and final time in qualifying – he will still start 19th because Ganyu Zhou has been penalized – the Frenchman is getting ready to experience a painful 150th Formula 1 Grand Prix.