After a disappointing performance at the opening F1 Grand Prix in Australia, the Scuderia Toro Rosso team has bounced back with Pierre Gasly making it to Q3 and qualifying sixth while Brendon Hartley was less than a tenth from the Q3 cutoff and will line up 11th for tomorrow’s race.
“There’s a bit of déjà vu from Melbourne, I just missed out on Q2 there, and in Bahrain I just missed out on Q3,” commented Hartley! “We’ve definitely taken a step in the right direction as yesterday we were really on the back foot from our side of the garage.
“The team brought an update here which was actually worth a large amount of time. It’s an amazing job from Toro Rosso to bring so much performance from the aero side to the track.
“I only got the new package for the first time today so I was a bit behind the eight ball but, at the end, I was very close to Q3 that I have to be happy anyway – I think everyone’s done a great job. Unfortunately, I used three sets of tyres in the first part of qualifying – with hitting the bird and breaking my front wing.
“I don’t know how the bird is, but my front wing was destroyed! It was really close today…it’s a shame I made a small mistake on the last corner!”
“My best qualifying in Formula 1,” exclaimed Gasly! “It’s been an amazing day…the team has been working very hard since the beginning of the weekend and it’s good to see this effort repaid. I felt really good in the car so I’m very happy.
“Since the first lap in FP1 I felt we were pretty fast, but we knew we had to put everything together to get into Q3 and we made it! It’s pretty mega! Hopefully I can get the best start possible tomorrow – we saw in FP2 that our long run pace was good so let’s see!
“Of course we expect the front runners like Hamilton and Verstappen to come back quickly, but I think we will be in the fight with Renault and Haas hopefully, so we need to work really hard tonight and make sure we have a car as fast as today and aim to score good points in the race.”
2018 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix – Qualifying
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:27.957
2 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:28.100
3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes AMG Petronas 1:28.123
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG Petronas 1:28.219
5 Daniel Ricciardo Aston Martin Red Bull Racing 1:28.397
6 Pierre Gasly Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda 1:29.328
7 Kevin Magnussen Haas F1 1:29.358
8 Nico Hülkenberg Renault Sport 1:29.569
9 Esteban Ocon Force India 1:29.873
10 Carlos Sainz Renault Sport 1:29.986
11 Brendon Hartley Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda 1:30.105
12 Sergio Pérez Force India 1:30.156
13 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:30.212
14 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1:30.525
15 Max Verstappen Aston Martin Red Bull Racing 0:00.000
16 Romain Grosjean Haas F1 1:30.530
17 Marcus Ericsson Alfa Romeo Sauber 1:31.063
18 Sergey Sirotkin Williams 1:31.414
19 Charles Leclerc Alfa Romeo Sauber 1:31.420
20 Lance Stroll Williams 1:31.503
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