F1 | AlphaTauri, Gasly snatches Q3: “I'm really happy”

AlphaTauri with two faces in Bahrain. Pierre Gasly overcame the difficulties of the AT03 by managing to secure Q3, and will start from the fifth row alongside George Russell. A good result for the Frenchman, while the same cannot be said for Tsunoda, his teammate, only sixteenth and out already in Q1, demonstrating how, perhaps unexpectedly, this car is finding it more difficult than expected.

"I'm really happy - Gasly said. We were aware that we would struggle in qualifying and that's why we used three sets in Q1, but then I put out a great lap in Q2 and moved on to the next stage with only one set of new tires available, but we didn't think that would happen. Clearly we like to fight for better positions, but at the moment we know we have a lot of work to do. Considering our performance in testing, especially in these colder conditions, we should be satisfied with how today went. It's difficult to say what could happen tomorrow: it's the first race with these new cars, but I think we can expect some good races based on what we saw in testing. We are aiming for some good points, we hope to get a good result."

“It was quite a difficult day – Tsunoda commented. We knew the car didn't perform very well in colder conditions and then we also lost the PL3s. However, we still had the goal of getting to Q2, but unfortunately that didn't happen today. We don't know what the other teams' race pace will be like: the goal is to get to the points, but I think it will be difficult."