Pierre Gasly says he was “pretty pleased’ to match his career-best qualifying for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix after securing a place on the second row.
Gasly, who finished fourth in Saturday morning’s practice session, was consistently inside the top 10 throughout the qualifying session.
The Frenchman’s Q3 lap saw him top a six-car battle for P4, with the gap between himself and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz in 10th place under half a second.
The result saw Gasly equal his best-ever grid slot having started fourth for Red Bull at last year’s German Grand Prix.
“I must say I felt good all day long,” Gasly told Sky Sports. “Practice was good, we made small changes for qualifying which improved the car.
“I managed to put in some strong laps, drive the way I wanted to equal my best qualifying ever in F1. So pretty pleased with that.”
Leading up to the weekend it was announced Gasly had been retained by AlphaTauri for 2021, ruling him out of a return to Red Bull.
Asked if the news had any bearing on his performance, Gasly admitted he known for a while he would be remaining at AlphaTauri next year.
“I must admit I’ve known the decision since quite a while, and I don’t really feel it has changed so much,” Gasly said.
“But I must say I’m really happy with the way we’re working with the engineers. They provide me with a very strong car every weekend.
“I think we managed to get even more out of it at the moment, knowing the package a bit better. I’m feeling good at the moment.
“The car worked well, Dany [Kvyat] was also in Q3, it’s been a good weekend so far for us so hopefully we can finish great tomorrow.”
Looking ahead to Sunday’s race, Gasly is hopeful he can claim more points as he targets finishing ahead of Ferrari on AlphaTauri’s home circuit.
“We’re literally like 15kms from the factory,” Gasly said.
“It’s obviously a very important one for all the guys in the garage and I really hope we can put in a strong performance. Italy seems to treat us quite well for some reason.
“Hopefully we can finish the day in a strong position and I can keep the battle with Ferrari if that’s possible.”
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