Pierre Gasly caused the first major incident of pre-season testing when he crashed out of Tuesday’s second day – but exuded quiet confidence over Red Bull’s potential.
Gasly, who has replaced Renault-bound Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull, spun through Turn 12 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and hit the barriers, causing damage to the rear of his RB15.
It curtailed Gasly’s running with over an hour left of the day, as he wound up seventh overall.
“I was pushing the car to the limit and playing on the limits and went on throttle, lost the rear, and that was it,” he said.
![Aston Martin managed its first race finish of 2026 with Fernando Alonso [behind] completing the distance](https://www.motorsportweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Aston-Martin-Honda-Japanese-GP-120x86.webp)
“It caught me a bit by surprise but there is not much more you can do when it happens. It was quite annoying to lose the hour of testing today.
“[But] overall it was really positive and I was very happy to get back behind the wheel after the winter.
“I think the first feeling is good. We tested a lot of positive things, we still have a lot of work to do over the next few days but the first run was great. Exciting.”
Gasly nonetheless dismissed setting targets for the first year of the Red Bull-Honda partnership.
“I think it’s too early to talk about expectations,” said Gasly.
“At the moment we need to understand the overall performance of our package, it is quite important for us to have our first feedback and first impressions are quite good.
“We tested some really positive things, some others negative, and now we need to understand a bit more before having any expectations.”
Max Verstappen will return to testing duties for Red Bull on Wednesday.
![Aston Martin managed its first race finish of 2026 with Fernando Alonso [behind] completing the distance](https://www.motorsportweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Aston-Martin-Honda-Japanese-GP-350x250.webp)
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