17/04/2021
NEWS STORY
Pierre Gasly: "I must say it was very good today, I'm really happy - the whole of Qualifying was a bit harder than in Bahrain, as I think quite a lot of teams have really upped the pace. I'm pleased I managed to put everything together in Q3 - it was an extremely clean lap - and to get the P5 at our home race here in Imola is a great result for the whole team. The gaps are extremely close - I think we're just a couple of hundredths off Charles and just three or four tenths from the top guys - so it's a great achievement today and we're in a good position for tomorrow. We've got to prepare for every situation in the race - we could have some rain tomorrow, or maybe some drama up the front, so we've got to be ready to capitalise on every opportunity we can."
Yuki Tsunoda: "The crash today in Qualifying was my mistake and I want to apologise to the team - I was pushing too hard into the entry of the chicane and just couldn't control the car after that. It's a shame because up until that corner the car felt really good and it was a strong lap - I think we could've gotten through to Q2 on just one compound. I believe there's the potential for rain at the start of tomorrow's race, so anything can happen, and I'll try to push as hard as I can to make my way forward from the back. The car looks really good, so I'll just reset my mind tonight and jump back in the car tomorrow to go racing."
Jody Egginton (Technical Director): "The car was competitive yesterday and we're quite happy with the developments we've brought to this race - there's good speed in the car and both drivers have been getting the most from it. This continued into FP3 today, although the field had tightened up a bit as other teams have run different strategies across Friday and Saturday, so we knew qualifying would be a close battle. Yuki was unfortunate in his Q1 run today - the lap was shaping up quite nicely, but he lost the car coming out of the chicane and hit the wall, sustaining some damage. These things happen to young drivers on their journey into F1 but he'll bounce back from it, the most important thing is that he's ok, and we'll get the car fixed in time for him tomorrow. Pierre was a far more straightforward progression through Qualifying, without too much difficulty. He managed to complete Q1 on one set of tyres and then continued to make good use of them in Q2. Then, in his Q3 final run he was able to complete a really good lap - extracting the maximum from the car. Pierre's Qualifying position is representative of where we feel the car is this weekend, we're firmly in the midfield mix and will be fighting for good points on Sunday."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Imola, here.