In a Sprint qualifying for the Chinese GP that offered no surprises at the top of the standings, with the Mercedes of Russell and Antonelli (the latter not penalized for an alleged impeding against Lando Norris) starting ahead of everyone, the unexpected result came from Pierre Gasly. The Alpine driver indeed set the 7th time, with the Frenchman starting tomorrow’s Sprint even ahead of the two Red Bulls of Verstappen and Hadjar, as well as Bearman’s Haas.
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A top-10 finish that satisfied the 30-year-old Frenchman, a week after a season start that ended with more bitter results: “I am extremely satisfied with today’s result in Sprint qualifying, especially after last week in Melbourne which did not meet our expectations – he commented – in Australia we learned valuable lessons that we then applied this weekend. We tried to put all the pieces together and I felt much better in the car, right from the first lap out of the pits. It’s positive to be more competitive here and to be able to easily reach SQ3, fighting with the top four teams. I feel good in the car and there is definitely more potential than shown last time. We will try to maintain this positive momentum tomorrow as well and see if we can bring home some points for the team.”
Decidedly more in difficulty, however, was his teammate Franco Colapinto. The Argentine will indeed be forced into a complex comeback in tomorrow’s Sprint, scheduled for 4:00 Italian time, from 16th position: “Today was a difficult day and the result in Sprint qualifying was not what we hoped for. We didn’t make the necessary step forward to compete for a spot in SQ3. Ultimately, we lacked pace, and we need to understand why. We lacked pace compared to Pierre, who was fast today and did a great job, which is fantastic for the team that is working hard and is also positive because it shows that the car still has potential. I just need to better understand how to get it out and where we can improve. We will try to learn as much as possible in tomorrow’s Sprint race, see if we can recover some positions and put into practice what we learned in tomorrow’s qualifying.”
