Gasly: AlphaTauri did a “bad job” with strategy calls in Sochi F1 qualifying

The Frenchman looked like he was a serious contender for a top-five starting position in Sochi after ending Q1 in sixth-place.

Gasly reported a lack of grip to his team midway through Q2 but AlphaTauri didn’t call him in for fresh intermediates.

As a result, Gasly failed to progress into Q3 and is set to start the race from 12th.

Television pictures after showed Gasly visibly frustrated as midfield rivals McLaren and Ferrari locked out the front row.

Reflecting on qualifying at the Sochi Autodrom, he said: “In the wet in Q1 we were very fast Q2 at the start were very fast and stayed out on tyres which were dead. I asked to box a couple of times and in the end, we stayed out on used tyres and we clearly had the pace to be right there in Q3 until the end and today we did a bad job and I don’t really understand why we didn’t box.”

Gasly confirmed that he will be speaking to his team about it but wants to quickly turn his attention to Sunday’s grand prix.

“For sure, if it happens next time,” Gasly added. “Now it’s done it’s not going to give us better starting positions so we need to focus on tomorrow, it’s going to be dry, I don’t really know what to say now, I just want it to be the race and make positions as we are clearly not in the position we should be in.”

AlphaTauri teammate Yuki Tsunoda enjoyed one of his better qualifying sessions with 13th.