Gasly shrugs off Verstappen near-miss moment

Pierre Gasly says he was altered to Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen’s charge too late as the pair almost collided, forcing the Dutch driver to clip the wall midway through FP2.

With the French driver preparing his tyres for a fast lap in the afternoon session he inadvertently blocked his Red Bull teammate who was already on a quicker lap at the final chicane.

As Verstappen backed off he banged the Wall of Champions on the exit of the final corner and picked up wheel rim damage which compromised the remainder of his FP2. Both Gasly and Verstappen duly missed out on the top 10 in the afternoon session over one second behind pace-setter Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari.

Gasly says he got a late radio call warning him about Verstappen but is confident the flashpoint will be resolved ahead of tomorrow’s FP3.

“They told me quite late when I was preparing my lap on the warm-up and when they told me I start to push,” Gasly told Sky Sports F1. “By then he was like five seconds behind and they told me he hit the wall but I didn’t exactly see what happened.

“I was trying to prepare for my lap so I will see him later and talk about it.

“I think we struggled quite a bit as there was a lot of things in FP1 and again in FP2 where we struggled with grip. We need to analyse everything tonight and we will come up with a solution tomorrow.”