AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly believed that sixth was the best position that he could manage for tomorrow’s Styrian Grand Prix, with teammate Yuki Tsunoda having to settle for 11th on the grid after receiving a penalty.

The Frenchman who came into the first of the doubleheader held at the Red Bull Ring eighth in the driver’s championship produced an excellent lap to put his Alpha auri on the third row of the grid ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso who was promoted to eighth on the grid after Tsunoda was handed a penalty for blocking Valtteri Bottas in the final qualifying session.

Gasly’s weekend hadn’t been smooth sailing up until the beginning of the qualifying after the Frenchman missed the second Free Practice session due to a Honda power unit issue not long after setting the second quickest time in the morning session.

When speaking to French publication Autohebdo, Gasly believed that sixth was the best result that the Faenza based team could get in today’s qualifying session with a lack of data. 

"I'm really happy because I don't think we could do better. It was a very good lap. I knew that on my own, I was losing too much in the straights compared to Norris especially. They are really very fast in a straight line this weekend.”

“On the second lap, I asked to be behind a car to have the tow. I think it was the perfect ride. Sixth with less than two-tenths of the first row, it's incredible for us.”

“There are always things that we polish, what I normally do after FP2, I did before qualifying, but it didn't impact us. To be 5th, 6th in qualifying is quite impressive this year, especially since the circuits are very different. Now we have to focus on the race, even if we have very little data. It will be necessary to use the work of Tsunoda."