Pierre Gasly

On the back of a star-making run to fourth place in Bahrain, Gasly qualified a lowly 17th for the Shanghai race.The Chinese circuit was not expected to suit the Honda-powered STR13 as well as Bahrain had, but Gasly's pace in particular suffered a noticeable decline between Friday and Saturday."We knew top 10 would be difficult, but [we expected to be] around P11, P12, and actually to ...

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Moments after scoring Honda’s best result since it returned to F1 in 2015, on the Japanese manufacturer’s second start with Toro Rosso, Gasly thanked his team for an “unbelievable” job and declared “now we can fight”. That was a reference to Alonso saying the same thing after the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, when he finished fifth for McLaren on its first race with Renault ...

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The French, in only his seventh Formula 1 race, gave the Toro Rosso-Honda package its first points of the season with a sensational drive to fourth.It was the best result for the Honda engine since it returned to the sport in 2015.Gasly had started from fifth on the grid following Toro Rosso's "huge step forward" from Melbourne, but Marko admitted today's result came as a ...

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Honda's smooth first winter with Toro Rosso had been a stark contrast to the troubled build-ups to its three campaigns with McLaren.But Gasly dropped out just 13 laps into the Melbourne race with an MGU-H problem, and admitted it was unnerving given the new restriction of three power units per driver for the year."We're all quite disappointed because testing went so well, with no ...

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The Toro Rosso-Honda driver locked up and went off-track at the Turn 3 right-hander on his final attempt in the opening qualifying segment in Melbourne, leaving him 20th and last on the grid.Gasly believes the mistake denied him a much better result, as he says he was two tenths up on teammate Brendon Hartley before the error – a gap which, if maintained over the rest of the lap ...

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Gasly completed his first full day of running in the new Toro Rosso-Honda at Barcelona on Tuesday.Asked if he had any issues with the now mandatory cockpit protection device, he replied: "I don't like it, it's a big mess to get in the car and get out."I think my suit is already broken, we will have to ask [racesuit provider] AlpineStars for many suits this year."Already, it's only ...

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Despite the French driver winning the GP2 Series in 2016, Red Bull chiefs were not totally convinced about him – so elected to fund him for a season in Japan rather than find him a seat on the grand prix grid.After delivering some impressive race wins, and coming close to winning the championship, Marko reflects on Gasly's campaign there as a vital step in preparing him for F1 with ...

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The 21-year-old Frenchman will contest his first full-time campaign in F1 with Red Bull's junior outfit Toro Rosso in 2018, his promotion capping off a strong junior single-seater career.He joined the Red Bull programme after winning the Formula Renault Eurocup title back in 2013, and has since added a GP2 crown and runner-up finishes in Formula Renault 3.5 and Super ...

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The 2017 season featured F1's first multi-team title fight since the switch to V6 hybrid engines in 2014, but the new higher-downforce cars were not conducive to wheel-to-wheel battles, with overtaking falling by half as a result.The championship also came in for criticism due to the amount of engine component-related penalties that regularly shuffled up the grid and drew the ire of ...

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Kvyat was dropped from the Red Bull driver programme and Toro Rosso before the end of this year.After initially being replaced by Gasly for the Malaysian and Japanese Grands Prix, he was brought back for the United States race when Carlos Sainz moved to Renault early but was then released ahead of the Mexican GP.Asked by Motorsport.com if he thought Kvyat had more talent than Gasly ...

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The team has ended the year with Hartley and Gasly as its drivers after starting the season with Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat, with the Spaniard switching to Renault early and the Russian being dropped.While Gasly was the latest driver to emerge from Red Bull's junior programme, World Endurance champion Hartley has enjoyed a reunion with the energy drinks firm's F1 programme after ...

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Frenchman Gasly joined the Faenza-based squad for the Malaysian Grand Prix, replacing Daniil Kvyat, while New Zealander Hartley made his grand prix debut with the team in Austin.While it has been clear for some time that Toro Rosso will retain its current driver pairing following the departure of Carlos Sainz to Renault and the ejection of Kvyat from the Red Bull programme, Gasly and ...

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While teammate Brendon Hartley retired just over halfway point in the race – continuing Toro Rosso's recent run of reliability woes – Gasly made it to the end in 12th, a lap down on race winner Sebastian Vettel.But Gasly's Toro Rosso did not have a trouble-free run either, the Frenchman slowing on the main straight on the final tour as he took the chequered flag at 60km/h."I knew ...

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All three have taken a new MGU-H for Friday practice, and since that represents the first time this year their cars have taken an eighth element, they land 10 places in penalties each.Hartley in fact stopped on track early in first practice, with a cloud of smoke emitting from the rear of the car after completing just two laps, suggesting that he will definitely require some fresh ...

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Although a final decision will be taken by the team on Friday morning, both drivers are bracing themselves for the worst and could find themselves relegated to the back of the grid.Hartley's situation appears clear after the engine failure that put him out of the Mexican Grand Prix, while Gasly, who managed to finish the last race, also expects to need some new elements for ...

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Despite missing qualifying, the Frenchman has been given permission to start the race, and he will thus join the penalised McLaren drivers at the back of the grid.After Sean Gelael drove his car in FP1 on Friday, Gasly only completed only a handful of flying laps in FP2 before suffering a turbo issue.He then stopped on track on his first lap in FP3, and the team wasn't able to ...

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With it now confirmed that Daniil Kvyat has been dropped by Red Bull, Tost says his mind is set on keeping his current drivers into 2018.Asked about the reasons for running the current line-up, Tost said: “Because both are Red Bull drivers, both are highly skilled drivers."We want to test them for the rest of the season as there is a high possibility this will be the driver line-up ...

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Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne will drop 20 and 35 places respectively after their Formula 1 engine component changes were confirmed.Honda had planned to make changes on both cars for Mexico, where it expects to struggle, in favour of fresher elements for the final two races of the season in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.Alonso will take his ninth internal combustion engine ...

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In Austin, Toro Rosso drafted in Porsche World Endurance Championship driver Hartley to replace Gasly so the Frenchman could try to win the Super Formula title in Japan.Meanwhile, Daniil Kvyat returned to the line-up after an absence of two race weekends in place of Renault-bound Carlos Sainz.The team then announced Hartley would keep his seat for Mexico, with Gasly returning in ...

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Toro Rosso needs to fill the seat alongside Daniil Kvyat at Austin after it was agreed Pierre Gasly would return to Super Formula to contest for the title in the finale on the same weekend.It is understood Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost wants to use Austin as an opportunity to evaluate a new driver as he weighs up his 2018 driver line-up.Gasly is favourite to get one of the ...

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Gasly, the 2016 GP2 champion, replaced Daniil Kvyat at Toro Rosso for Malaysia and Japan, the team announcing he would also stay on for Austin.But Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko then suggested a final decision had yet to be made as to where Gasly would race during the weekend of 20-22 October.Honda said it was its priority for Gasly to race in Austin, even if that meant it ...

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Gasly made his grand prix debut with the team in Malaysia, standing in for Kvyat, and is expected to see out the season - even though doubts have emerged over his presence in the United States Grand Prix due to it clashing with the Super Formula finale.Carlos Sainz will switch to Renault for the Austin race ahead of a full season with the French manufacturer in 2018, leaving Kvyat and ...

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Gasly, the 2016 GP2 champion, replaced Daniil Kvyat at Toro Rosso for Malaysia and Japan but he says it remains unclear if he will race in Austin, which clashes with the Super Formula finale.The Frenchman has secured two wins and a second place in the last three Super Formula races with the Honda-powered Team Mugen, leaving him just 0.5 points adrift of leader Hiroaki Ishiura.Honda ...

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Red Bull motorsport chief Helmut Marko says that a decision will be made after the conclusion of the Japanese GP weekend.If Gasly has to race at Suzuka, Toro Rosso faces the challenge of finding a replacement.Gasly has previously suggested that he would prefer to race in Austin, but Honda has made it clear to Red Bull that it wants him to complete his commitments in Japan, where he ...

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Palmer announced on Saturday after Japanese GP qualifying that the Suzuka race would be his last event with the team, after weeks of uncertainty about his future.The move cleared the way for Sainz to replace him at Renault, meaning Gasly - who was originally only expected to do two races with the team - could be retained for the remaining grands prix.Toro Rosso has confirmed Gasly ...

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