A Friday to forget for frustrated Gasly in Baku

It proved to be a torrid time for Alpine driver Pierre Gasly in Baku on Friday, where he was at the epicentre of two red flag incidents during the build up for this weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

In the morning practice, his A523 suffered a hydraulic leak that led to his car catching fire as he tried to find a place to pull over and park safely, with race control bringing out the red flags for a 14 minute stoppage.

It was still billowing smoke several minutes later despite the application of multiple fire extinguishers. The care was later returned to pit lane where mechanics scrambled ot get it ready in time for qualifying.

They succeeded, but Gasly then suffered an accident and ran into the barriers at turn 3 on his first qualifying lap, damaging the car and putting him out of the session, with the session once again suspended in the aftermath.

"Obviously it’s been a very disappointing and tough day," Gasly said when he managed to return to pit lane. "It’s been one of those days where we’ve faced setbacks and it’s important we all bounce back.

"FP1 didn’t go as planned with a hydraulic issue in the first 20 minutes, and the boys did an incredible job to repair the car - literally a minute before the qualifying.

"I’d like to say a big thanks to the mechanics for their recovery between practice and qualifying to make the changes and have the car ready," he said.

"With such few laps [under my belt], coming into turn 3 I didn’t brake so late, but didn’t brake hard enough. Thought I could make the corner and unfortunately just understeered, and put it into the wall.

• Read also: Leclerc snatches pole position for Sunday's Azerbaijan GP

"We’ll debrief as a team, move forwards together and hopefully take something from this race weekend," he added. "My mind is already looking ahead to tomorrow where we have another qualifying session, and of course the Sprint Race."

“We have got to look at some positives where we can find some,” continued Gasly, who finished third here in 2021. “It has been challenging for us as a team, but we score the points only tomorrow afternoon and on Sunday.

"We will give our best shot," he added. "We can overtake, so we will have to use these opportunities and hopefully we can be a good surprise on Sunday, and also tomorrow."

"It’s been a frustrating day for the team and one we’re aiming to move on from very quickly," acknowledged team principal Otmar Szafnauer. "On Pierre’s side, it’s been especially unfortunate with the hydraulic leak and car fire in Practice followed by his off in Q1.

"The mechanics worked expeditiously to fix his car after FP1 to make sure he could be in Qualifying; so, credit to them for their fantastic work."

While Gasly will have to start Sunday's race from the back row, his team mate Esteban Ocon made it through to the second round of qualifying and will line up in 12th place on the grid. But even he had a far from a trouble-free Friday.

Ocon's session was cut short with a gearbox fitting issue, with the team deciding to keep the car in the garage as a precaution.

"We tried to bounce back from our practice issues in qualifying, but in the end it was not enough to reach Q3," he said. "It’s clear we need to improve the areas where we’re struggling for pace. We will review where we can improve, and as always we’ll be giving it our best to come away with points."

"With Esteban’s minor issue and the lack of running in Practice between both cars, we did not get enough running on the various tyres in our preparation," added Szafnauer.

"I think that has impacted us significantly today," he admitted. "On a street circuit, you need both time and knowledge to make the right set-up changes and that just was not possible today due to our issues.

"We’ll be doing everything we can to make sure Saturday is much better than today," he insisted. "I’m confident we will bounce back.”

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