Pierre Gasly says Toro Rosso can be pleased with its pace around the streets of Monaco as he returned the team to Q3 during qualifying.
Toro Rosso had not made it through to the final segment of qualifying since Gasly’s starring effort at the Bahrain Grand Prix in April, having struggled in recent events.
The pace of the STR13 was in evidence during Saturday’s final practice session as Brendon Hartley finished seventh, with Gasly eighth, as the team led the midfield pack.
In full: Monaco Grand Prix qualifying result
Hartley dropped out in Q1 and while Toro Rosso was unable to maintain its position atop the midfield group, Gasly was nonetheless able to make it through to Q3, where he finished 10th.
“I’m really happy about it, we know in Monaco some opportunities could come up and the potential has been pretty good since the beginning of the weekend,” he said.
“It's only my second Q3 so I’m really happy about it, it was close in the midfield between P6 and P10 so it's a shame not to have got that extra tenth but I think we can be happy with P10 today.”
Hartley, meanwhile, held only 16th after the first Q1 runs and a yellow flag period towards the end of the session, caused by Charles Leclerc running wide, scuppered his chances.
“It’s really frustrating after being P7 this morning,” said Hartley.
“I wasn’t as happy with the car in terms of balance. We didn’t change too much, so a bit to look at.
“Everyone has the same story with traffic and yellow flags. The first one, I had to abort my last lap. The last two attempts in qualifying I had a yellow and traffic.
“I’m pretty frustrated because it’s hard to pass around here and we’ve strong all weekend. I’m a bit disappointed.”
Hartley will nonetheless move up to 15th on the grid as a result of Romain Grosjean’s penalty.
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