Pierre Gasly was pleased to enjoy a “productive” opening day at the Canadian Grand Prix after a reliability issue had threatened to disrupt his track time.
The Frenchman was encountering his first foray onto the circuit in FP1 when he ground to a halt, which was later diagnosed as a problem with his spare steering wheel.
However, Gasly would ultimately not miss out on vital running as the first session of the weekend was eventually abandoned due to an ongoing CCTV issue at the venue.
With his car ready in time for the start of FP2 – a session that was extended to 90 minutes – Gasly proceeded to complete 39 laps, ending up 10th fastest overall.
“It was a very bizarre day from the start,” Gasly stated. “It stopped after three corners, so not ideal that I had a nice walk through the park to get my way back to the paddock – it was very strange!
“Then we got the car back before the end of FP1, so I thought maybe we would manage to get out, but we could not get on track.
“But in the end, on my side, we managed to have a productive day,” he continued. “Free Practice 2 was much better and we were able to progress our programme for almost the full one-and-a-half-hour session before the rain at the end.
“I had an interesting moment at Turn 4 with the rear sliding but managed to keep it away from the wall. I think we’re in a good place ahead of the rest of the weekend and hopefully tomorrow’s practice can be better to set ourselves up for qualifying.”
While Gasly was able to get some worthwhile running under his belt in the A523, his team-mate would not receive the same fortune when he also developed a technical issue in FP2.
Esteban Ocon’s session ended prematurely when a water pressure problem arose, forcing him to abandon his car on the track having only recorded 17 laps to his name.
The Alpine driver admits he is starting the weekend on the “back foot”, claiming he’s prepared to endure a truncated final session on his side of the garage ahead of qualifying.
“A difficult day for us,” Ocon reflected. “Obviously not what we wanted, because we didn’t do many laps, like everyone, in FP1, but in FP2 also we struggled, as we did only a run, and unfortunately that’s going to hurt us for tomorrow.
“We start [Saturday] with a bullet in the foot because we are not going to have that inter tyre, that extra one, that others could carry after today. I’m going to have very limited running, probably in FP3, compared to the others.
“We are very much starting on the back foot. It’s going to be a big push, trying to get up to speed quicker than the others, and hopefully we can do so.”
The end of FP2 was disturbed by rain and more downpours are anticipated on Saturday, with many drivers primed for a repeat of last year’s wet qualifying hour.
Following an interrupted Friday, Ocon, scorer of a podium for Alpine in Monaco two rounds ago, says he would relish some rain granting the Enstone side an opportunity to continue its recent strong form.
“Hopefully only bad weather in qualifying!” he remarked. “No, that’s obviously very exciting. It’s been a very good couple of races for us, and we’re looking forward to be able to continue.
“We’re ready to take a challenge and see what we can get after tomorrow.”
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