Pierre Gasly asserts that AlphaTauri does not have any major concerns after his car suddenly caught fire during FP2 in Singapore.
Gasly returned to the pits following a run on Friday evening, but after mechanics attached the fuel breather, the car started emitting flames.
The Frenchman quickly jumped out of the cockpit while a nearby Aston Martin employee put out the fire with an extinguisher.
The fire was a result of the hot temperatures that are present in Singapore – but Gasly says it hasn’t left AlphaTauri worried that there will be a repeated scenario later in the weekend.
“It wasn’t ideal, it got slightly hot and when we connected the fuel breather it caught fire,” Gasly said.
“But we could switch it off and restart again. Just a bit of a barbeque feeling but nothing too bad in the end.
“In these conditions, it’s so warm. But nothing worrying or concerning for the rest of the weekend.”
Gasly ended the second practice session in 14th place, almost two seconds down on pace-setter Carlos Sainz.
The 26-year-old asserts that he wasn’t happy with his performance, and states that AlphaTauri must find a chunk of time if it wants to fight with its championship rivals on Saturday and Sunday.
“I’m loving this track, it’s a really special place, very technical, great rhythm,” he said.
“On the performance side, I don’t think we are happy. We finished quite far away in FP2. At the moment, we don’t have the pace for the top 10.
“We need to find something for tomorrow. Compared to the last three weekends, it seems to be a little bit more difficult here.
“We’ll work tonight and I think we need to find three or four tenths if we want to beat these guys.”
