Gasly buoyed by pace but major qualifying fear looms

Pierre Gasly was encouraged by AlphaTauri's strong pace in Friday's free practice sessions, but producing a good lap in qualifying will be a different challenge altogether according to the Frenchman.

Gasly concluded his day on Friday seventh in the pecking order, just behind Mercedes' George Russell and ahead of Alpine's Fernando Alonso.

But teammate Yuki Tsunoda also managed to slot himself inside the FP2 session's top ten, validating the good form of their AT03 on the twisty streets of Monaco.

"I'm really, really happy in terms of performance," Gasly said.

"We were definitely always on top of the midfield, so that’s really positive. Obviously, we are working quite hard at the wheel but it’s as you would expect in Monaco.

• Monaco GP: Friday's action in pictures

"So far we have shown a lot of positives. I managed to do clean laps, put things together and be competitive.

"I would still not say I am feeling 100 per cent comfortable because I touched the wall a couple of times here and there trying to find the limit but, overall, I'm pretty pleased and we'll try and do a step forward again for tomorrow."

As usual, qualifying will be paramount on Saturday afternoon as a low grid position will only add to the massive challenge involving overtaking in Monte-Carlo.

Gasly is therefore fearful of stumbling upon a laggard or encountering congestion on a hot lap that would ruin his efforts in the grid-defining session.

"We will have to try to find the right spot," he said. "It's a short track, a lot of cars and competitive drivers who try to find the best position on a very tiny track," continued Gasly.

"For sure, it’s not going to be easy. We have the pace to go through to Q2, for sure, this weekend and we just need to keep it clean, not do any mistakes or be involved in any silly situations and we’ll focus on that tomorrow."

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