AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was relatively satisfied after the first two practice sessions ahead of the French Grand Prix this weekend.
Gasly ended the first session P5 as the teams put their one-lap performance to the test as Mercedes reserve Nyck de Vries ended up a very respectable five tenths off George Russell as he ended ninth.
The Frenchman would go seventh fastest in FP2, and he was an average of just over a second adrift of Ferrari’s pace on Friday.
All of that came after a close shave with slow moving Haas and Williams cars as he exited Turn 11, and he was satisfied with his overall performance.
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“Clearly, in terms of performance, we were back in the Top 10 with fifth this morning and seventh this afternoon,” he said after FP2, quoted by the Express.
“The feeling in the way the car behaved showed a lot of positive signs with the new parts we brought this weekend.
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“It is great to have this package for my home race and to see all the people around the track, now we need to work to understand what we tested today and go through all the data to be able to put it together for Quali tomorrow.”
While he feels a grippier and more responsive front end at his home race than he has in others, he reported that the tyres, chosen from the middle of the range this weekend, are still prone to a bit of overheating.
“The way the front reacts is sharper and more reactive, especially in these longer corners where we used to wash out and overheat the tyres badly,” explained Gasly.
“The tyres are still overheating, which we will have to work on for the race, but it should be a fun one.”
Temperatures are expected to be a theme of the weekend, with highs of over 30 Degrees Celsius anticipated throughout.