Gasly ‘keeping cool’ on Bahrain F1 podium chances

Pierre Gasly is playing down his chances of finishing on the podium at the season-opening Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix.

AlphaTauri continued its impressive turn of pace from winter testing as Gasly qualified fifth, just over 0.2s behind Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas in third.

Gasly was pipped by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to fourth place in the dying stages of Q3.

The Frenchman progressed from Q2 to Q3 on the medium tyre, giving him a potential strategic advantage over Leclerc and the McLarens, who are set to start on the soft tyre.

“I think it’s an amazing start for us,” Gasly said. “I don’t think I have achieved P5 many times with this team and to start 2021 in that way, using the Mediums on Q2 – that will give us an advantage in the race – I have to honestly say everything went as we could have dreamed of.

“I think we’re ready to give Charles a good fight tomorrow.”

When asked about his prospects of finishing on the podium in Bahrain, he added: “Let’s keep it cool, OK? We’ll keep it cool for now, there are clearly big points on the table for us tomorrow, so we just have to execute everything perfectly, with what we have learned from testing, but I’m excited.”

Leclerc noted AlphaTauri’s impressive race pace in Friday practice and admits it will be “tricky” to keep Gasly behind in Sunday’s race.

"I think the top three realistically is not reachable yet," Leclerc said. "Our goal is to obviously try at least to keep our position.

"I have to say that seeing yesterday I'm quite impressed by AlphaTauri, they were very very quick on the race pace yesterday so it's going to be tricky."

Daniel Ricciardo qualified sixth on his debut for McLaren, just over a tenth behind Gasly.

Ricciardo will start the race on the soft tyre - the grippier rubber often gives a performance advantage off the start line - leaving the Australian confident he can get ahead of Gasly at the start of the race.

"It is going to be very unpredictable,” Ricciardo said. "I am sure that Gasly will be quick on the medium, but may be at the start he will be vulnerable. Charles put in a good lap. He did that last year as well. Does he have the race pace to keep it? We are not sure. I am sure that their car is better this year.

"I think we have a few good fights, maybe two or other three teams tomorrow.”