F1 | Toro Rosso, Gasly: ​​“Q3 was not within our reach”

Difficult qualifying for the French team on the circuit Le Castellet with Pierre Gasly fourteenth e Brendon Hartley 17th but forced to start from the back of the grid due to the penalty he will have to serve after the engine change.

Pierre Gasly: “I think Q3 today wasn't within our reach, I really hoped we could do it, but unfortunately we didn't have the right pace. I was very close to Sergio, so maybe I could have started one position further up, but we lacked the performance in qualifying. Obviously, not having a better result in my home race is a bit disappointing, but I think we did everything we could. It seems we had some problems in the second sector, on the long straights, we will need to analyze the data and see where we are losing time, because overall the car is going well. I think yesterday the situation was slightly better than today, but the battle in the middle of the group is very close and we were missing a couple of tenths. Driving in front of the home crowd was really fantastic, they give me a great boost! Tomorrow we will have another battle – the most important – and I hope there will be many fans in the stands to support me. I will fight hard and try to give my all to get back into the points: the last time I managed to do so was in Monaco and it would be fantastic to be able to score points in France!”.

Brendon Hartley: “Tomorrow we will start the race from the back of the grid due to the penalty received for replacing the engine, but we are quite positive because the car performed well throughout the weekend, especially in yesterday's long run simulation. For me qualifying started quite well, I think I was in the top 10 after the first run, but then on the second attempt I found some traffic. It also started raining a little towards the end of the ride so we couldn't get everything together. But if the weather is as unpredictable as today, opportunities could arise tomorrow.".