Gasly blames ‘too many mistakes’ after shock Q1 exit

Pierre Gasly says the AlphaTauri team are making too many mistakes after he was eliminated in Q1 at the Monaco Grand Prix.

The Frenchman failed to make the top 15 for the second time this season after his team-mateYuki Tsunodahad caused a red flag at the Nouvelle chicane and stoppedGasly’sflying lap.

It was a particularly bitter blow for the Frenchman having shown excellent speed across the weekend and looking like he had a realistic chance of making it into Q3.

The first-round elimination is the latest event in what is proving a very unfortunate season for Gasly and the 26-year-old cut a frustrated figure in the media pen after the qualifying session.

Gasly pinpointed the team’s decision to only do two quick laps during Q1 as the cause of his early elimination and said they had made “too many mistakes” this season.

“I don’t really know what to say. I’m so disappointed about the whole qualifying,” he said. “To say we were extremely fast all weekend, we finished FP3 in P5…I felt comfortable in the car. I was really looking forward to that qualy.

“We decided to only do two laps at the start of Q1 when others did three or four. I think when I did my only lap I was P4, P5 at the time. After that, there was the red flag.

Tsunoda剪辑Nouv条目上的障碍elle Chicane and it triggers a red flag

The session will resume shortly with just under three minutes to go#MonacoGP#F1pic.twitter.com/JWWiFPJkbb

— Formula 1 (@F1)May 28, 2022

“Then we left it too late in the last run and Yuki passed the line with one second and I didn’t manage to pass it before the red lights came on by two seconds. I didn’t have any representative lap time.

“We are doing too many mistakes. That’s just the case over the last few race weekends and today it cost us. I’m just extremely disappointed for everyone in the team because we deserved way more than that, but we just didn’t do a job good enough.”

The Frenchman was also pessimistic about his chances in Sunday’s race, highlighting the difficulty in overtaking at Monaco.

“We start P17 and from there I will pray for the best but we know Monaco, we know how it is,” he said.

“It’s probably the worst track to start at the back. Tomorrow I’ll get in the car, put the visor down and do the best job I can and then we will see what’s possible.”

Gasly’s team-mate went on to qualify 11th but was more focused on apologising to his team and Gasly in his post-race interview.

“From my side, it’s apologies to the team that I distracted Pierre’s lap,” the Japanese driver said. “That situation I created, for sure. I felt completely weird with the first set of new tyres and second set suddenly I picked up the grip. Apology for the team. I think there was potential to go Q3, for sure. I think I damaged my car in the early stages.”

Tsunoda also admitted he had felt the impact of the crash on the car throughout the remainder of qualifying, but said the team would need to see more data before assessing just how much damage had been caused.