The Alpine F1 Team’s Pierre Gasly says it is always disappointing to be knocked out in Q2 after the Frenchman was ruled out of a place in the top ten shootout in qualifying for Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix at the Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo.
Gasly set a fastest time of 01:10.567s and speaking following the action he said:
It’s always disappointing to be out in Q2 but there is plenty still up for grabs this weekend. I lost some time on my second push lap in Q2, mainly due to an upshift issue, so that is something we need to investigate. It would have been close to reach Q3 so we will certainly assess what we can improve next time. In general, I would say we are lacking a little bit of pace here but we do have our eyes on Saturday and Sunday to score points, so I’m certainly looking forward to that. Tomorrow is the final Sprint of the year. We will aim to fix some small details ahead of the Shootout and then give it our all to come away with points in the Sprint Race.
Esteban Ocon is just one place ahead of Gasly in 12th place after setting a time of 01:10.562s and speaking following his run in qualifying he said:
“It’s really great to be back driving here in Brazil and at such an iconic track in Interlagos. It’s been a busy day with only one Practice session ahead of Qualifying, and it certainly felt like a quick turnaround. After going through Q1, we had a tough last run in Q2, just missing out in twelfth place. I do feel like we maximised everything today and that’s all we had and I’m sure there will be opportunities in the race on Sunday. Now, our focus turns to Saturday and the Sprint where more points are up for grabs. We must take the learnings from today and apply them for the rest of the weekend. I’m sure there is more to come from us.”