Alpine had a Formula 1 Spanish GP qualifying of opposites. While Franco Colapinto celebrated making it to Q3, Pierre Gasly said he wants to understand the result in Madrid.
Read more F1: Leclerc cites good qualifying, but sees lack of overtaking points in Madrid
The Argentine managed to get through to the final phase of qualifying in the Spanish capital and lines up on the fifth row of the grid in ninth position. “I am very proud to have reached Q3 today. Yesterday was a tough day; I didn’t feel 100% comfortable in the car and we had to work hard as a team to find improvements and gain confidence until qualifying. In the end, I did some of my best laps, which secured ninth position on the grid for tomorrow’s race,” he said.
“It’s a difficult track and we know it doesn’t favor our package much, so we had to progress step by step. I was still learning a lot during qualifying; we had a great performance and I believe we extracted the maximum possible. I had a critical moment at Turn 12: the speed was very high and I had to make a correction. Tomorrow could be difficult to overtake, and we really don’t know what might happen on this track. Opportunities may be limited, so our focus will be to maximize everything under our control and, of course, aim for points at the end of the race,” he continued.
Read more F1: Hamilton sees solid pace, but says qualifying in Spain «did not end as expected»
Meanwhile, after the Frenchman started from pole in Monza, he will start only 14th in Madrid. “We have a lot to work on and understand after today’s result. I was optimistic for qualifying, as the car seemed good during all free practice sessions and the pace indicated we had conditions to fight for the top 10. However, I had difficulties with grip; the car was sliding a lot and hard to drive.”
“I feel something is not right and I’m sure the team and I will analyze the situation to understand why we were so slow in qualifying. But it’s not over yet, and our goal is always to finish races in the points. We know it will be a challenging race starting from 14th position, but our pace with a full tank in the second free practice was promising, so we have reasons to be confident for tomorrow. We don’t know exactly how the race will be on this circuit — it will probably be very difficult — but I will give my best to recover positions and reach the top 10,” he concluded.
Read more F1: Mercedes expected pole, but Antonelli starts in P2
