F1
Pierre Gasly delighted to be driving "the fourth best car" ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix Sprint
© Florent Gooden / DPPI
Check Mercedes Benz dominating the session was expected, see Classic Ferrari for saleif not McLaren to keep pace with the leaders as well. On the other hand, see Pierre Gasly to become the "best of the rest," surpassing in the process a fit Ollie Bearman, and a Max Verstappen The more difficulties they face, the more exciting this is for fans of...Alpine and the French driver. Able to gradually increase his pace during this session, he did not falter, achieving a personal best time of 1:32.888.
"It's very, very positive. I'm happy, we've managed to learn a lot since Melbourne to get the car into a good operating window." he rejoiced on Canal+ microphone. From the first few laps I felt comfortable. It's good to be in the pack, the fourth-best car. There's still a significant gap at the front, but I think we did a very good job. It was the best we could do with the car we have.
Admittedly, the gap to George Russell's pole position remains. A second and more than three tenths separate the two men, but that wasn't the main point for Pierre Gasly. Proud of the progress made, and only three tenths behind the Ferrari of Charles LeclercThe Frenchman will now be closely watched ahead of Saturday's race.
ALSO READ > Chinese GP – Sprint Qualifying: George Russell on pole again, Pierre Gasly 7th
“Energy management remains quite complicated,” he conceded, contrary to the initial comments made in the paddock before the start of this new weekendThis requires a lot of adjustments, especially with only one Free Practice session. It's a challenge, but it's indeed a bit simpler than in Melbourne.
The action continues from 3:30 AM (French time) this Saturday, before qualifying for the Grand Prix at 8:00 AM. Pierre Gasly is keen to feel comfortable on this track, and the performance developments of...Alpine will be ones to watch. Especially since Franco Colapinto, sixteenth on the grid, is already more than nine-tenths of a second behind the Frenchman…
Mathieu Chambenoit
Responsible for the single-seater categories (F2, F3, FRECA, Eurocup-3, F4...), I enjoy discussing F1, Endurance, or MotoGP.
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Alain Féguenne (🇱🇺 Luxembourg)
13/03/2026 at 08:02 a.m.
Pierre… A magnificent qualifying session… 🧢 Hats off to you!!!!! alainkf1@pt.lu 😎👍 Alain Féguenne F1 Competitions - 24 Hours of Le Mans - WEC
Yves-Henri RANDIER
13/03/2026 at 03:12 a.m.
1'32"888 in Sprint Qualifying 2026 for the Rouen driver, compared to 1'32"640 in Sprint Qualifying 2025 – well done! So it's not just Mercedes AMG that's less than a second off its times from last year. Perhaps this should be checked with the other teams (except Aston Martin and Cadillac, of course), with the caveat that the weather conditions, which I don't recall from last year, were a factor.