Pierre Gasly was relieved to score a point but he rues the silly mistake for his penalty in F1 Spanish GP, while Honda is looking at Yuki Tsunoda’s issue.
AlphaTauri’s start to the 2021 F1 season has been nothing less than chaos, with multiple troubles hurting their chances hugely. The Spanish GP was another such example, where Gasly was handed a five-second time penalty for being out of position on the grid.
Replays showed him slightly off the yellow line, which was enough to trigger the alarm. It was hard-fought battle then, as Gasly fended off multiple drivers to score the sole point. The Frenchman thought more was possible if not for the penalty.
“We started far,” said Gasly. “Then we managed to recover in P10. After I was P10, I came really close to Ocon. We should have managed to score one more point. Obviously, objectively, we don’t have the pace. Portimao was difficult but we managed to have one point. We must manage to improve.
“Here was even more difficult and we got one point too. I don’t know how to feel. Obviously, I am upset with me for the grid issue. It cost us five seconds. It was mis-judgement on my side. It was a good race to recover from where we were at the start. We had some good battles. I tried everything.
“As I said, we managed to get a point but obviously we will have to work. I think our car is capable to do better and we should be able to come with a better performance for Monaco,” summed up Gasly, as teammate Tsunoda’s Q1 exit turned into disaster after a DNF.
The Japanese stopped after few laps with a suspected engine trouble. Post-race, Honda noted that it was a fuel pressure issue, which is being investigated. “Initially, I had a massive lock,” said Tsunoda. “I thought there was something wrong on the gearbox and not the engine, hopefully. I tried to restart but nothing worked.
“We have to investigate what happened there. Until qualifying, it was my fault and in the race, the car went out of control. I have to survive this moment. I have to refocus my job. If these things happen it is better to have it in the early part of the season. I have to reset,” summed up Tsunoda.
Here’s how F1 Spanish GP panned out