Pierre Gasly, an impressive 5th, leads the French armada in Bahrain
Driving his Toro Rosso with a Honda engine, Pierre Gasly performed miracles by securing the 6th fastest time in the qualifying session in Bahrain. He will start in 5th position following Lewis Hamilton's penalty. In the French camp, Esteban Ocon also managed to place his stubborn Force India in the Top 10, while it was a dismal afternoon to forget for Romain Grosjean.
All the French fans were expecting a performance from Romain Grosjean with his Haas after his excellent debut in Melbourne fifteen days ago. However, the Frenchman got lost in the traffic and in the heating up of his Pirelli tires on the Sakhir track.
The Haas driver won’t even make it past Q1 and will end up in a disappointing 16th place on the starting grid: “I didn’t have grip. Sure, my out lap was catastrophic with three, four cars around me, but we need to understand. Because right now, I don’t understand. Even if the sensations weren’t great, I was pretty much there since the beginning of the weekend,” explained a disheartened Grosjean on Canal +.
Another Frenchman had a smile as he got out of his car. Esteban Ocon could raise his fist. He managed to qualify his challenging Force India in the Top 10, unlike his teammate who had tested a new front wing that the Frenchman did not have access to this weekend. An obvious reason for satisfaction for him: « I am very happy with our performance. We are back in Q3 after a huge effort from the team over the past two weeks. We have done a lot of work: testing, learning, and understanding things about the car, and we can already see the improvement compared to Melbourne. »
Something to remain optimistic about for a season that seemed quite poorly off after the race in Australia: « It’s a good sign for the future and it shows the strength of this team even when we are under pressure. The car performed well and I think we are in good shape for the race. Points are the target and we have good straight-line speed and a good race pace. »
Awesome job from the team today, the hard work is paying off and it’s only the beginning! Back in Q3 and starting P8 tomorrow 👌🏻😉
Super boulot de toute l’équipe aujourd’hui, le travaille paie et ce n’est que le début! De retour en Q3 et P8 sur la grille 😉👌🏻 #EO31 #BahrainGP pic.twitter.com/PtdbXV0VBc— Esteban Ocon (@OconEsteban) 7 avril 2018
But the happiest of the French was undoubtedly Pierre Gasly, who brought his Honda-powered Toro Rosso up to 5th position on the starting grid, ahead of the two Renaults and the two McLarens. An amazing result for the young driver: “We didn’t expect that!” exclaimed a smiling Gasly after the qualifications.
« My best qualification in Formula 1! It was an incredible day, the team has worked very hard since the beginning of the weekend and it’s good to see this effort paid off. I felt really good in the car, so I am very happy. From the first lap in FP1, I felt that we were quite fast, but we knew we had to put everything together to make it to Q3 and we did it! It’s great. » he continues.
The most important thing now is the race, and Gasly hopes to be able to fight for the points: « I hope I can get the best possible start tomorrow, we saw in FP2 that our pace on the long runs was good, so we’ll see! Of course, we know that the leaders like Hamilton and Verstappen will come back quickly, but I think we’ll be fighting with the Renaults and the Haas. »
Saturday was a day @PierreGASLY will remember forever 👀
How high do you think he will finish from P5 on the grid later today? #BahrainGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/V8o7RAOjLD
— Formula 1 (@F1) 8 avril 2018
