FP saw the team sitting at opposite ends of the table as Gasly topped FP1 and placed 8th in FP2 whilst Doohan placed 16th and then 17th. The circuit in Jeddah is a demanding one so Doohan spent most of his time getting to grips with the course.
Pierre Gasly: “Overall I am pleased with our Friday Practice today. I had a great feeling in the car in Free Practice 1 and it is always nice to top a session even if it is only Practice. I felt like the car was good enough to push right away, which is a good sign on a high-speed circuit like this one. It was tricky at times and we struggled a little more in Free Practice 2 with general grip. We know this session is more representative to what we will experience for Qualifying tomorrow, so certainly that gives us some things to understand and get on top of ahead of tomorrow’s running.”
Jack Doohan: ““It has not been the easiest of Fridays for us but there have still been plenty of learnings to take from the two sessions. It’s such a high-speed circuit and you need to build confidence to really be able to push the car. On my side, I felt quite comfortable on the Medium tyre. We have not yet clicked with the Soft compound so there are a few things there for us to understand. I am sure we will get on top of it ahead of Qualifying and hopefully maximise the potential of the package.”
Gasly continued his strong performance into Saturday and made it to Q3 again, chasing points for the second weekend in a row. Unfortunately Doohan fell out in Q1 for the third time in the season, placing him 17th.
Pierre Gasly: “On the whole, it is positive that we made it back-to-back Q3 appearances after last weekend in Bahrain. Today there were certainly a few things we could have done better, which we will learn from for next time as I am sure we could have been higher than ninth place. The whole team has done a great job and the package is good at the moment. We have put ourselves in a position to fight for points tomorrow, which, of course, is the target. We will need a clean race in a tight field. We know where and who our race is against with Carlos [Sainz] a few places ahead. That’s our aim and I’m looking forward to it tomorrow night.”
Jack Doohan: “It’s not the end result we wanted in Qualifying, but, overall, I’m pleased with the steps we made today after a challenging Practice yesterday. We made good steps forward between Free Practice 3 to Qualifying. We were able to work through some things and find some improvements overnight and I immediately felt the positive impact in the first few laps of today where I was much more comfortable in the car compared to yesterday. The end result in Qualifying is not one we are happy with especially being so close to reaching Q2. We remain optimistic and we know overtaking opportunities are better here than other circuits and we will aim to take advantage of a few things like strategy with the ambition of progressing forwards to the points.”
Race Day didn’t go as planned for the team as Gasly crashed out on Lap 1 after tangling with Tsunoda of Red Bull. It was incredibly disappointing after his P9 Qualifying. Doohan carried on for the team and gambled with an early pit stop behind the safety car. Unfortunately he had to pit again which dropped him down the order and he finished 17th.
Pierre Gasly: “It’s never a nice feeling to end the race on Lap 1 after an incident. It has been a long time since I had a situation like this and it is a disappointing one for all of us at the team to take. I had a good line into Turn 4, I was aware that Yuki [Tsunoda] was there on the inside and I left enough space while keeping the car inside the white lines. It is an unfortunate outcome with the contact with him but that is racing and just the way it goes sometimes. There are many positives for us to take from the weekend. We know this track, on paper, is not our strongest but we managed to still be competitive and well in the mix for points. That gives us good confidence and we can build on these positives going into the next few races.”
Jack Doohan: “It was a difficult day today and we faced various challenges throughout the race which meant we were not able to progress forward. We took a bold strategy to pit for the Hard tyres under the Safety Car on Lap 1, with the aim to stay out through to the end. Although the car felt comfortable in the corners, we were unable to overtake the cars in front and once we backed off to regroup, we were caught by those behind us once they pitted for fresh tyres on a different strategy. Ultimately, as a result the one stop proved difficult, and we pitted again to reach the end.”
