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Pierre Gasly has set his aim on coming back from the summer break as a stronger driver, following another disappointing result in Hungary.
The Frenchman crossed the line in sixth place, behind the McLaren of Carlos Sainz and one lap down on teammate Max Verstappen, who was narrowly beaten to victory by Lewis Hamilton.
MORE: Horner defends decision not to pit Verstappen amid Hamilton battle | Verstappen hails 'good weekend' despite race defeat
Gasly says that the felt comfortable in the car on Friday, but from FP3 onwards, he suffered from a sudden, unexplainable loss in pace.
"It was a difficult one. We had a strong Friday, things went well at the start of the weekend and from FP3 onwards I lost a lot of pace and struggled a lot more with grip.
"Qualifying was already difficult, it wasn't maximised and we didn't have the place to fight at the top, and today it was the same again.
"We need to understand why we lost so much pace and why we struggled so much, and we'll come back stronger in Spa."
Gasly had a poor start to the race, as he dropped down a number of places from his starting position, before making up the spots in the pit stop phase of the race.
"I had a bit of wheelspin, and then after with the medium tyres I was a bit sandwiched in Turn 1 and quite close with Kimi in Turn 2 so I lost a lot at the start which for sure didn't help in the race.
"Even after that, we didn't have the pace to be competitive. So we need to analyse, but we scored a couple of points. Not the points that we wanted but we'll sit down with the guys and see what happened.
"It's good for everyone to have a break now, switch off and review the first few months. See what went well, what we could have done better and come back stronger in the second half of the season."
Grand Prix of Belgium
C. Sainz jr
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Replies (4)
Login to replyajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
Replace him! Formula 1 has been amazing lately. Imagine if Red Bull had someone like Ricciardo in that seat right now. I am certain that Kvyat would manage to be getting on the podium every once in while.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Indeed replace him. I sincerely doubt he will progress to Max' level. If he ever could've, the damage is now done. I don't think I ever truly expected him to be fighting Max, but at least match him in pace. But as it stands he is in the 3rd and best progressing car and gets beaten by McLarens and Alfas and the likes.
Ram Samartha
Posts: 1,172
Yeah, unfortunately for RB he is just not in the same league as the other drivers in the top teams, or some of the other teams for that matter. He just doesn't seem to have the raw talent that some others do.
Patentprutser
Posts: 392
He really must improve. That he can’t match with VER is one thing, but being lapped and nearly 0.9 sec back in qualifying is far to much. He can race for sure but it seems he can’t adjust a car to his driving style