Franco Colapinto reaches Q2 for Alpine F1, while Pierre Gasly exits in Q1 after a disrupted session at the Canadian Grand Prix.
It was a cold shower for Pierre Gasly at Alpine F1: he recorded the slowest time in today’s qualifying for the Canadian GP.
The Frenchman will start 19th nonetheless, benefiting from a 10-place penalty for Yuki Tsunoda.
That said, it is worth highlighting a return to form for Franco Colapinto, the Argentinian finishing 12th in Q2 and narrowly missing out on Q3. He will, however, start 10th due to penalties for Isack Hadjar and Tsunoda.
“If we look at where we were yesterday and in the previous races, we can say it is a good result and a better day on my side of the garage. I pushed hard and felt more comfortable behind the wheel. Given the tiny gaps, we had the potential to reach Q3. There was a mix of tyre choices on the grid and, for my part, we struggled a bit in the first corners on mediums before making up time over the rest of the lap. I touched the wall and lost a bit of time in my final attempt, and that is why I apologized to the team over the radio. Overall, I am satisfied with the progress since Friday. I am continuing to get my bearings within the team and to understand which direction to take on setup. We made positive changes overnight and did a good job with the engineers, who have supported me a lot. I hope we can carry this momentum into tomorrow, especially with the car’s good behaviour on long runs on Friday.”
Gasly admitted that “this Q1 elimination is hard to take, especially since the car had the pace and potential to do better today. We were on track to be in the top ten in Q1 when the red flag came out. We had to abort a lap that looked solid and likely enough to move forward. On the final set of soft tyres, we were not in the right temperature window and struggled with grip. It was a fairly chaotic lap, and the car was sliding a lot. We need to analyze what happened because the difference between the tyre sets was frustrating, and we had much more to give than what we showed. The car was good, and we clearly should have placed both cars higher on the grid. We will see what we can improve and review our strategic options, as tomorrow’s race could be long and full of opportunities to seize.”
According to the team’s executive advisor, Flavio Briatore, “the car had the potential for a much better result today. Franco did a good job by executing his session well and quickly getting into rhythm. A better result was therefore possible even though he is now tenth on the grid due to penalties for other drivers. Pierre had the potential to post a good lap time in Q1, which would have comfortably put him into Q2 before the red flag. This gives us something to think about because we must always aim for perfection in every area, and we did not achieve that today. Tomorrow, we will need to execute everything better and see if we can maximize the car’s pace to finish in the points.”
