Pierre Gasly says a simple tyre lock-up caused him to crash out of Friday morning's session at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which ended AlphaTauri's test early. Gasly had completed 40 laps of the Spanish Grand Prix venue when he lost control at Turn 5 and made contact with the wall , resulting in damage to the front-right of his car, which was left stationary in the gravel trap. "Unfortunately, I locked up my tyres during the morning running and damaged the car, but testing is about finding the limits," explained Gasly, with AlphaTauri unable to repair the car in time for the afternoon session. Despite the setback, AlphaTauri managed to rack up more than 300 laps between Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda over the three days of testing. "We've still been able to gather a lot of valuable data over the three days," added Gasly. "This is, of course, only the first test, and we have a lot to analyse before the three more days of testing in Bahrain."
Gasly pleased what what he's experienced so far
The aforementioned crash aside, Gasly described his first full stints at the wheel of the AT03 as a "really good" experience, as he attempts to get to grips with the next generation of F1 machinery. "Obviously, you can't really look at any sort of performance at the moment," he said. "This test has really been about focusing on myself and trying to get good feedback so the team can understand what you need from the car as a driver, to find more performance. "I must say, it feels quite different to drive these cars – it obviously is visually but also how it responds too, even the way you get into the corner and braking. "I've been trying a variety of things and fine-tuning my driving to work with the car balance that we have, this is all part of the learning process."
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