Pierre Gasly thanked his mechanics for their hard work after they performed a rapid repair job on his Alpine ahead of qualifying, only for him to crash during the session.
The Alpine driver suffered a frustrating start to his Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend during the single practice session on Friday. A hydraulic fault led to a fire on his car which forced him to stop.
His team worked hard to replace his power unit and gearbox in the two-and-a-half hour gap between practice and qualifying. They were successful, and Gasly was able to participate in the session.
However he crashed into the barrier at turn three during Q1 and will start Sunday’s grand prix from the back row of the grid. “Obviously, it’s been a very disappointing and tough day,” he said afterwards.
“I’d like to say a big thanks to the mechanics for their recovery between practice and qualifying to make the changes and have the car ready.”
His team mate Esteban Ocon put the team’s other car 12th on the grid. Gasly will have another chance to qualifying higher on the grid for the first sprint race of the season tomorrow.
“My mind is already looking ahead to tomorrow where we have another qualifying session and, of course, the sprint race where points are on offer,” he said. “We’ll debrief as a team, move forwards together and hopefully take something from this race weekend.”
Gasly is enduring a difficult start to life as an Alpine driver. He qualified last on his debut for the team, but salvaged a point. In Australia he was on course for a top five finish until he went off in the standing restart at the end of the race, then collided with his team mate after rejoining the track, putting both drivers out.
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Pictures: Gasly suffers fire during practice
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2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix
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