Although he ended up in the top ten in both Friday training sessions, Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda‘S Pierre Gasly I had a feeling that more of him and his AT-02 will be coming this weekend Intercity Istanbul Park.
The Frenchman, who did not score points in either of the last two Grand Prix, was eighth in the morning and ninth in the afternoon, and was the busiest driver in the two sessions, completing sixty-two laps. In the afternoon he spun at turn six, but was able to keep the car out of the gravel.
But even though he was in the top ten in both sessions, Gasly was far from happy with the set-up of his car and he is hoping for better balance and an improved pace when the race starts on Saturday.
“I didn’t feel that great in the car today, but we still took two strong positions, which is positive, and I think we can give more tomorrow,” said Gasly.
“I wasn’t very happy with the balance of the car as I had a lot of understeer so we have to work on it.
“I think a lot of drivers have seen this so we have to go out and analyze what we can do to improve this and hopefully we can keep improving our performance in FP3.”
“I gradually built my self-confidence” – Yuki Tsunoda
Teammate Yuki Tsunoda saw the track in Istanbul Park for the first time on Friday, but the Japanese race was surprised by the track and was particularly impressive in the afternoon.
Tsunoda was only eighteenth fastest that morning, just ahead of the two Uralkali Haas F1 Team Driver, but he was a much better 11th in the afternoon and narrowly missed the top ten Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN‘S Antonio Giovinazzi.
He also hopes that the team can find further improvements overnight so that in Saturday’s qualifying, rain or shine, he can be a contender for the top ten places on the grid.
“I think this is a really great track and I really enjoyed my first two sessions here in Istanbul Park,” said Tsunoda. “I gradually built up my confidence and this afternoon I think we showed good pace.
“The conditions were windy today, but pretty good, but it can rain tomorrow so this could prove to be even more difficult.
“We have to see what happens to the weather and prepare for it as best we can, but we’re happy with the car’s performance so far this weekend and I think we’ve made a big improvement.”
Yuki Tsunoda enjoyed his first experience on the Istanbul Park Circuit on Friday – Credit: Dan Mullan / Getty Images
The post Pierre Gasly: ”Hopefully we can continue to improve our performance in FP3″ first appeared on monter-une-startup.
