AlphaTauri looked strong during pre – season tests, but even Pierre Gasly was surprised to be quick enough to qualify for the top five and start the tight end fit for the first race of the year.
We saw some impressive certification performances from AlphaTauri at times last year, but what was particularly impressive about Gasly ‘s session in Bahrain was the fact that it progressed to Q3 using the mediocre material. Even though Charles Leclerc put the best of the rest behind Max Verstappen and a Mercedes pair, Gasly will have a tight win over the Ferrari on Sunday.
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“It’s a fantastic start for us,” said Gasly. “P5, I don’t think I’ve achieved that many times with this team. Starting 2021 that way is just amazing. We qualified midway in Q2 which will give us an advantage in the race. Honestly everything went as we had dreamed and I think we are ready to give Charles a good fight tomorrow. “
If he gets the best of Leclerc in the race that only Gasly leaves he needs to find one more place to score a podium, and admits he needs to keep an eye on his feelings ahead of him. Sunday.
“We’ll keep it cool! We’ll keep it cool for now but I think there are big points on the table for us tomorrow. So it’s important to just put everything into practice perfectly with what we learned from experimentation, but I’m excited. “
Things looked even better for AlphaTauri in Q1, when Yuki Tsunoda was in second fastest and Gasly in fourth, but the rookie struggled on his last run on mediocre tires in the second half. gaining a certificate and releasing in 13th place.
HIGHLIGHTS: See all actions from the first accreditation session of 2021 in Bahrain
“I do not know why or what happened,” said Tsunoda. “I can’t accept the low grip especially after wearing the C3, in fact compared to C4 it’s a harder material with less grip. It’s just not much different, I lost a lot of grip and there wasn’t enough grip. I need to see what happened and work out the data and prepare for tomorrow.
“For the learning side, I think it was really good. I think I learned a lot from this qualification. There is still a lot of room for improvement so I will prepare to do better in Imola. “
And Tsunoda admits he needs to gain experience on how to get performance from a tougher tensioning machine, having been faster than Gasly on the softs in Q1.
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“For me always when I use the software it always works as it should and the car feels fine, especially this session. C3 feels completely weird, especially the second set of new tires. Even for me, with another push breast, I don’t think I could get through with Q3 – there was no grip at all. We need to see if there is a problem or not. Q1 was amazing and suddenly Q2 is going really bad. ”