Pierre Gasly explains what caused his elimination in SQ2 in Miami

There will be no 3/3 for Pierre Gasly. After his brilliant performance in Bahrain (4th on the grid) and reaching Q3 in Saudi Arabia (9th), the French driver failed to secure a third consecutive top 10 qualifying finish. He will start only 13th in the sprint race of the Miami Grand Prix, the first of two races scheduled this weekend.

However, there was hope after a rather positive SQ1. Although he finished the session with the 11th fastest time, Pierre Gasly was only 0 seconds behind George Russell, who set the fastest time: enough to give him hope of qualifying for SQ657. Unfortunately, things got complicated during the second segment, where the Norman driver only completed one flying lap on his set of medium tires. His chances of progressing to SQ3 were compromised from the first sector, where the gap to his direct rivals was already too great to be made up over the rest of the lap.

"There are certain things that explain this gap with the top 10," Pierre Gasly analyzes at the microphone of Canal +, after finishing four tenths of a second behind Isack Hadjar, the last qualifier. “I think we started with the tires a little cold. From the first corner, I completely slid and lost two tenths right from the start. The grip didn't come until later in the lap. There are some things we learned about the tires, but with only one lap in qualifying, it leaves little time to react. It was complicated in free practice, so we tried to improve some things. There are some positives, but we'll have to try to find more performance for Saturday.”

Starting 13th, just behind his former teammate Esteban OconPierre Gasly is expected to struggle to secure the points awarded to the top eight finishers in the sprint race. On a track where overtaking isn't common, it's important to qualify well: the Norman will have a golden opportunity to make up for lost time on Saturday evening during the qualifying session for the Grand Prix.

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“It was complicated in FP1. We’ll have to try to find more performance for tomorrow.”

The reaction of Pierre Gasly who will start 13th tomorrow. #MiamiGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/XtAxiYt110

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