Emilia Romagna Grand Prix – Pierre Gasly believes the first two training sessions at Imola could be the best AlphaTauri has ever done.
After finishing fifth in the morning, Gasly’s best FP2 time of 1: 15.629 ended the day as third fastest, less than tenth among the Mercedes drivers.
The Frenchman, who made his debut win at Monza last year and did well at the start of the 2020 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix before technical problems ended his race, was very happy with his setup and felt able to push it to get started.
“I think this was one of our best Fridays as a team,” said Gasly. “P5 this morning and P3 this afternoon and I was so close to the top guys. I’ve felt good in the car since the first lap and managed to push pretty hard and drive the way I wanted to. I think it was a successful day.
“We first focused on short runs on the softs that looked strong in terms of pace, and then did a few high-fuel laps to prepare for Sunday’s race.”
While enjoying that his best time is so close to the first two, the AlphaTauri rider knows that the different tire compounds used played a huge role and that his team just needs to focus on their own goals.
“We have to stay pretty calm and focus on our goals. We know the Mercedes have a much faster car than we do and we know they have a head start, they have been on media but I think we are just focusing on ourselves and trying to understand how we can improve our car and our pace can improve compared to our main competitors, namely Ferrari, McLaren and probably Alpine.
“We will analyze the data that we collected again this evening and hope that we can find a little more in qualifying tomorrow.”
Gasly’s team-mate Yuki Tsunoda had a harder start to the day, first taking a trip into the gravel before losing track time while handling a problem with the power unit. The Japanese rookie had a quieter second practice session and finished the day in seventh.
“I didn’t manage to do many laps during the first RP due to a problem,” said Tsunoda. “And only completed four push laps in total, but the car felt good while I was on the road. The team fixed the problem during the break and I was able to increase my pace in the second RP as I pushed further – hopefully I can improve again in tomorrow’s practice before qualifying. “
Despite his troubled day, Tsunoda said he has learned a lot from the field, particularly about tire management, and will do his homework before tomorrow’s meetings.
“I did a lot of laps here before the season, but I think I still won a lot from the sessions today. Above all, I learned something about tire management on this track and have a lot of interesting data from the softs that I can now analyze. “
