A mixed session for the tea on Friday in Free Practice; Hirakawa enjoyed a great FP1 on his home track and lapped faster than Gasly but when Doohan stepped back into his car for FP2 he made no laps before suffering a crash at high speed. He was thankfully ok but went into the weekend with no track time and having to rely on Gasly’s data for set up.
Pierre Gasly: “From our side, it was quite a busy day even with some of the stoppages and we managed to fit many things into our programme. We tried some different set-ups and the car is feeling good and we have something to work with for the rest of the weekend…The midfield is close with only a few tenths between a number of cars. That’s what makes it exciting and we’ll give it our best shot tomorrow in Qualifying.”
Jack Doohan: “First of all, I am OK after the incident. It was a heavy one, something that caught me by surprise, and I will learn from it. I know the team has a lot of work ahead to repair the car going into tomorrow, so thanks in advance to them for their efforts. My focus is on tomorrow where we will have Free Practice 3 to get ready for Qualifying.”
Ayo Hirakawa: “It was a great experience to do Free Practice 1 at my home race in Suzuka. It’s a circuit I know very well so I felt quite confident to push straight away and really maximise the session and execute the team’s run plan. We completed everything we intended to do so and learnt some things which should benefit the team going forwards. The car felt quick, that was cool to experience, especially at this fantastic circuit and I’m very grateful to the team for this opportunity.”
Doohan rejoined the team on Saturday after his mechanics stayed late to repair his car from Friday’s crash. Unfortunately he didn’t make Q2 but said that the car felt good. Gasly had a better performance, making it through Q1 and Q2 on a track he knows well but just fell short of Q1.
Pierre Gasly: “I have mixed feelings after Qualifying today. It was so close out there – as we expected – with small gaps in lap time separating a handful of cars. The car felt good, I was happy with the balance and I was really able to push in the corners…I’m feeling confident and we are in a good starting spot for tomorrow. There is a chance of rain, which I would welcome, as it always makes things more interesting for everyone and gives more opportunity for a good result.”
Jack Doohan: “Going into Free Practice 3, we were a bit on the backfoot from yesterday, which meant we needed to make big steps each time we went out on track. The car felt reasonably good but we’re still struggling a bit with stability, which is something we need to analyse. Maybe Q2 could have been possible with the speed we had. However, I made a small mistake on the exit of Spoon Curve on my final lap where the car understeered a bit and I had to get out the throttle, which cost us time for the rest of the straight. We have not run in wet conditions this weekend, but it will be the same for everyone and we will look to make progress from our current starting position whatever the conditions.”
Gasly started in P11 whilst Doohan was in P19 following Saturday’s Qualifying. Gasly pushed alongside Alonso to regain his place when they pitted on the same lap. Unfortunately, it was a slow stop and he lost a couple of places. Elsewhere, Doohan started on softs and pitted early but had to make way for his teammate who was on fresher tyres. The team remains with no points in 2025 as Gasly finished P13 and Doohan finished P15.
Pierre Gasly: “It was not our race today and there are definitely a few things for us to analyse. It felt like we did everything we could in terms of performance. The car felt good, well balanced and we know where we are lacking a bit of pace. It was an intense first lap, quite dicey with Fernando [Alonso] and we missed out on a place there even if it was a fun battle. We lost a bit of time at the pit-stop so we’ll review what happened there and we know how important track position is around here in terms of traffic and pace management. We gave it our best and it was not enough to be near the points. We have a good chance next week in Bahrain where the car seemed to perform well in pre-season testing. Conditions will be different to then, though, but it’s a chance to reset and hopefully we can come away with a much better outcome.”
Jack Doohan: “It was good to get another full race distance under my belt and continue to gain experience and understanding of the package. Given our starting position, we went more aggressive with tyre strategy with the Softs at the start, which allowed us to attack and gave us the best chance to move forward with the undercut. That also meant we ran a longer second stint on the Hard tyres [38 laps] and had to defend towards the end. I think we did well to keep Nico [Hülkenberg] at bay, but it was a pity we could not keep Carlos [Sainz] behind on the newer Softs. It was positive to move forward at a track that’s difficult to overtake and the race pace also felt strong despite no high fuel running. We will take a couple of days between races to rest and recover. I’m looking forward to going again in Bahrain where the conditions will be completely different again.”
