Pierre Gasly reveals what was behind Alpine’s ‘unbelievable’ qualifying

Pierre Gasly credited an “aggressive” set-up on his Alpine for helping him secure the team’s best qualifying result of the year at the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

The Frenchman pulled off a huge shock by claiming third place on the grid behind Mercedes driver George Russell and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz with a stunning lap in Q3.

It marked not only Gasly’s best qualifying result since entering F1 in 2017, but also Alpine’s strongest performance of the season, usurping teammate Esteban Ocon’s previous best effort of P4 in a wet qualifying in Brazil.

“It’s the first time ever so it’s unbelievable. Honestly we didn’t think we would be able to achieve a top three in the quali,” Gasly said.

“It was an incredible lap, especially around this track you’re flirting with the walls everywhere through the lap – a lot of adrenaline, a lot of excitement.

“I knew crossing the line it was a good lap, but when they came up on the radio telling me we’re lining up third tomorrow… it’s just amazing so really happy.”

When asked why he thinks his car was so strong in Las Vegas, Gasly replied: “We went with a pretty aggressive package in terms of downforce, so we are running very little downforce around this track.

“We try to maximise the straight lines, we obviously make our lives slightly harder in the corners. But yeah, I think it's a challenging track. It's very cold conditions. It's quite an outlier in the season.

“But I had a nice feeling in the car since P1. P2 went well. P3 went well. And then in that Q3, we managed to make it work with only one set of new tyres as well. So there was definitely some good pace.

“And yeah, for now, I'm very pleased. Obviously, it's only qualifying, but I think it's probably the first time I qualify in the top three. And it feels like it was a special one.”

After a shock double podium in Brazil moved Alpine three points clear of Haas in the constructors’ championship, the French outfit have a chance to further strengthen their grip on sixth place.

But Gasly is refusing to get carried away with thoughts of claiming another podium.

“Well, at the minute, that's not really what I'm thinking about,” he insisted. “I think we know where the target is for us. We're fighting Haas and AlphaTauri [RB] in the constructors’.

“Obviously, whatever happened in that quali is amazing. It feels good to be in front of Max and McLaren and these guys. But at the end of the day, it's not our fight. So we'll give our best shot tomorrow.

“It’s a challenging one around here with the graining. So we'll make sure we do our homework tonight to maximise the chances tomorrow. But for sure, from P3, we increase our chances to get some good points.”