Gasly and AlphaTauri aim for “clean races”

Shining in qualifying is good. Achieving good results on Sunday is better. It is in this state of mind that Pierre Gasly and his stable Alpha Tauri approach the Portuguese Grand Prix after two rounds as promising as they were frustrating in 2021. 

The small squadra from Faenza (Italy) and its drivers clearly have a good card to play in the middle of the grid but for that they will have to limit the errors which deprived them of big points at Sakhir then Imola. 

5th on the grid in Bahrain as well as in Italy, Gasly left empty-handed in the desert following an avoidable collision with Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) at the start of the race. Three weeks later in Emilia-Romagna, it was a strategic choice that was too risky in terms of tires which prevented the Norman from defending his chances at the front. The winner of the 2020 Italian GP, ​​however, managed to save the furniture a little by snatching 7th place to open his 2021 counter. 

« If we put it into perspective and look at it objectively, we had very good weekends in terms of Fridays and Saturdays., Gasly confided to the few representatives of the French press present in Portimão. We had excellent qualifications. Afterwards, for the moment it is clear that we have not managed to make Sunday a reality. This is what we will have to work on. 

There have only been two races but we won't have to miss the opportunities every weekend. We understood, we learned. This is the objective of the upcoming rounds: to concentrate on Sundays, and to have clean races without the errors that we may have made at the start of the season. ». 

After a nice opening Grand Prix, ending in an attractive 9th place, his teammate Yuki Tsunoda had a complicated weekend on the grounds of AlphaTauri with a big crash in Q1 and a spin in the race which sentenced to 12th place. 

« I learned a lot at Imola where I made two big mistakes during the weekend, declared the Japanese rookie in Portugal. I have higher goals and there was a great opportunity to score points so it's a shame to have missed out. 

I'm really sorry for the team but this is also part of the learning process for drivers and I learned a lot of lessons. Now I need a clean race for the team in the championship. The performance is there. I just have to manage to put it all together ». 

Tsunoda has never driven at the impressive Portimão circuit and is expecting an intense but challenging weekend after doing some scouting in the simulator. Gasly, for his part, hopes to display the same level of form as during his previous visit to the Algarve, concluded with a superb 5th place.