Double turbo failure stalls Toro Rosso in Mexico

Toro Rosso is set to run a thorough analysis into why it suffered a double turbo failure on Saturday at the Mexican Grand Prix which wrecked both Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly qualifying charges.

After Gasly suffered engine issues in FP2, his day was effectively over on the second lap of the final practice session when his turbo expired on the straight at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. Toro Rosso were forced into an entire engine change due to the damage and lost the race against time to get the French driver out for qualifying.

Gasly has received permission to start from the back of the grid for the Mexican Grand Prix but has a total of 12 laps to his name having never raced at the circuit before.

Hartley suffered a near-identical issue at the start of Q2 during qualifying which restrained him to 13^th on the grid but felt confident he could challenge both Williams drivers for a potential shot at the top ten.

Toro Rosso chief race engineer Jonathan Eddolls says the team will run an investigation into the mechanical problem and hope to find a solution ahead of the Mexican race.

“We thought yesterday was a difficult day, but today was no better with a number of issues on the PU side,” Eddolls said. “Unfortunately for Pierre, at the start of his first timed lap in FP3 we had a turbo failure which meant that was the end of his session. We got the car back and we tried to repair it, but we realised it was more extensive than we first thought.

“In the end we needed to take a complete PU, however due to parts limitations the fresh PU wasn’t fully built, so we didn’t get the car out in time for qualifying: that meant the end of Pierre’s day.

“Brendon had a really good FP3. We learnt a lot about the tyres and he was still building up himself lap by lap. We went into qualifying with good expectations and I think he showed that the car was very capable, especially in Q1.

“In Q2 he was building on that even further and it was looking like we were going to challenge or potentially be in front of the Williams, but then unfortunately another turbo failure on the PU side cut his qualifying short.

“It was a challenging day, we need to understand tonight why so many power units are dying on our chassis. Tomorrow will be a difficult day for us. However, we will put today behind us, look ahead to tomorrow and remain positive.”