In Barcelona, both Alpine riders reached the qualifying final for the third weekend in a row – Pierre Gasly showed the fourth fastest time, Esteban Ocon – the seventh. After the session ended, Gasly was awarded a penalty with the loss of six places at the start for blocking Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz.
Pierre Gasley (4th): “I’m very happy to be fourth fastest – my best result for Alpine this season. The fight is very tight with minimal margins – I was only tenth short of the front row. We had a good session, gradually adding – in the final I had a great circle, which I enjoyed.
It is a pity that I will not start from the second row tomorrow because of the penalty. I had a lot of bad luck with the traffic when there were a lot of cars around in the last high speed corners. We accept the penalty and are ready to move forward and fight – I know we have the chance to have a strong race.”
Esteban Ocon (7th): “Another positive day for us. A big thank you to everyone at Enstone and Weary for getting us a fast car this weekend and the novelties worked out well.
We achieved our goal by reaching the qualifying final with two cars – a great achievement for the team. I performed well until the last attempt, where I lost precious time. That said, I’m not in the worst starting position and we’ll do our best to earn a lot of points.
It’s nice that not everyone takes their usual starting position. It’s good for the sport and I think it contributes to an exciting race where we will try to score a lot of points.”
Alan Permain, sports director: “We are satisfied with the speed of the cars and the fourth and seventh times of Pierre and Esteban. The car is fast all weekend – the team is well prepared on Friday. We knew the fight in the final was going to be very exciting.
Esteban failed to squeeze out the maximum in the decisive attempt in the final – probably the pace allowed him to count on several positions higher. Pierre drove a brilliant circle and was close to the first three. Unfortunately, he received a penalty kick, which means that our riders start sixth and tenth. However, we believe we can have a good race.
We will see different strategy options and will do our best to regain positions. The aim is to score well-deserved points with two cars.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
