Gasly focused on improving qualifying pace

Pierre Gasly was satisfied to end his first two races of the season in the points, but the Alpine charger was less happy with his single-lap pace at both events.

In Bahrain, the Frenchman inexplicably failed to exit Q1 which left him chasing from behind on race day. In Jeddah, Gasly made the Q3 cut but was outpaced in the final segment of qualifying by Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon.

Ahead of this weekend's third round of racing in Melbourne, Gasly took stock of his performance in Jeddah and said that he'll be working especially hard on improving his speed in the Saturday afternoon grid-defining session.

"We made it back-to-back top tens for 2023 in Jeddah, which is a positive start to my career at Alpine, even if we left Saudi Arabia wanting more," he said.

"On my side, it was a quiet race, filled with learning about the car and the things we need to do to keep improving.

"We probably didn’t make the step we needed between Friday and Sunday and that’s something we need to look into to make sure we’re maximising everything from the weekend.

"I need to keep working hard with my engineers in order to be in better shape for qualifying, as we’re still not where we want to be on single-lap pace and getting the car into a good window to compete for higher places."

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Teams will measure up this weekend on a third track that bears little in common with the first two venues, but where Alpine should be a top-ten contender.

However, Gasly's past track record at Albert Park is anything but impressive, which is another source of motivation for the Frenchman. But to secure a good result, Alpine will need to be "immediately on it" this weekend.

"Albert Park is a great circuit and another different challenge for us this year," he added.

"We’ve seen how we are at a conventional circuit in Bahrain, a fast street circuit in Saudi Arabia, and now we will see how we are at Albert Park, which is different in characteristics.

"It’s a fun circuit, quite bumpy in places and we have to be immediately on it if we’re to come away with a satisfactory feeling and points on the board.

"Australia is a place where I’ve not scored as many points as I’d have liked in my Formula 1 career, so it’s time to put that right this weekend."

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