Pierre Gasly says that securing third place on the grid for the Las Vegas GP is “absolutely incredible” for his Alpine Formula 1 team.
The result came just a few weeks after Gasly joined team mate Esteban Ocon on the podium at Interlagos.
Gasly showed good speed in Las Vegas last year when he qualified fifth, only to fall away in the race with tyre graining.
Having been quick in practice he was eighth in Q1 and fifth in Q2 before securing third in the final session.
“It’s absolutely incredible, as a team,” said the Frenchman. “We started Bahrain on the last row with both cars, and all of a sudden, the last few weeks have been quite a change.
“I’m really happy and pleased with the work the team has been doing in a season where everything looked impossible, just to still stick together and put some more performance in that car.
“Going into qualifying today, I must admit we never thought we’ll be in a position to actually get in that top three, but I managed to have a very special lap at the right time on that last set in Q3, and it’s a very nice surprise.”
The team’s choice of a very low downforce setup appeared to pay off over the whole lap.
“We went with a pretty aggressive package in terms of downforce, so we are running very little downforce around this track,” said Gasly.
“We try to maximise the straight lines, we obviously make our lives slightly harder in the corners. But yeah, I think it’s a challenging track. It’s very cold conditions. It’s quite an outlier in the season. But I had a nice feeling in the car since P1. P2 went well. P3 went well.
“And then in that Q3, we managed to make it work with only one set of new tyres as well. So there was definitely some good pace. And yeah, for now, I’m very pleased.
“Obviously, it’s only qualifying, but I think it’s probably the first time I qualify in the top three. And it feels like it was a special one.”
Gasly said he wasn’t too concerned about having outqualified the top four drivers in the World Championship in Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri.
“At the minute, that’s not really what I’m thinking about,” he said. “I think we know where the target is for us. We’re fighting Haas and AlphaTauri [RB] in the constructors’.
“Obviously, whatever happened in that quali is amazing. It feels good to be in front of Max and McLaren and these guys.
“But at the end of the day, it’s not our fight. So we’ll give our best shot tomorrow. It’s a challenging one around here with the graining.
“So we’ll make sure we do our homework tonight to maximize the chances tomorrow. But for sure, from P3, we increase our chances to get some good points.”
Adam Cooper F1 