Both Alpine F1 drivers were hampered by traffic

      Alpine racers are upset that they could not qualify for the sprint finals, even though the A525 car allowed it. But both say that they were primarily hampered by traffic problems.

      Pierre Gasly (17th): "I have to admit that I am disappointed, because the car made a good impression and was capable of a good pace. But I do not know what happened there in turn 1: I was prevented by a Racing Bulls car, whose driver probably was not informed that I was approaching.

      Unfortunately, he stayed right on the apex in this corner, and I had to completely shift to the side on the dusty shoulder, which caused me to lose three or four tenths at the beginning of the lap.

      With such a density of results, it is, of course, very expensive, and I'm just worried about our team, because after training we were able to make significant progress and had to fight to reach the finals of today's qualification.

      All this is annoying, but the situation is what it is. We will fight tomorrow, and I have no doubt that we will be able to rise to higher positions. However, we'll see how the tires will work during the sprint, although we'll do our best anyway. There will be another qualification tomorrow afternoon, and in each session we will try to show the best possible result.

      We know where we can qualify, including the pace of our car, so I have confidence about tomorrow."

      Jack Duane (16th): "It's clear that qualifying didn't last long for me, and I'm still in the process of figuring it out. In general, there was a combination of a number of circumstances, including traffic that prevented me, several cars on the highway were not in the places where we would like.

      In any case, everything still needs to be analyzed in order to understand how to act in order to improve our position. Fortunately, there will be another qualification tomorrow afternoon.

      In addition, we had problems with the power plant during the session, but to be honest, they didn't affect me that much, because I only had one fast lap left. Such troubles sometimes happen, but fortunately, by that time I had already managed to make several attempts.  

      I am confident ahead of the main qualifying weekend, we will continue to work hard and try to make full use of the information we have received today. Of course, we still have a sprint ahead of us, and now the main task is to prepare for it as best as possible, and then have a good time."