'Confident' Gasly reflects on strong China Sprint Qualifying performance

Pierre Gasly has reflected on an impressive Sprint Qualifying performance at the Chinese Grand Prix, with the Alpine driver set to start Saturday's Sprint from seventh on the grid.

The Frenchman managed to advance to the final part of Sprint Qualifying on Friday, posting a time that left him ahead of Max Verstappen – Gasly having also been cleared post-session of impeding the Red Bull driver.

"I must say I’m extremely pleased with that, especially after last week," said Gasly, who finished 10th in Australia to claim the final point on offer at the opening round.

"I think we found a lot more performance, good learning from Melbourne. I tried to put everything together today, and then I felt a lot better in the car straight from the first lap. I think it’s good to feel in the mix, and be in the top 10 again.

"I’ve been feeling good in the car, there’s definitely more potential than we’ve seen in Melbourne, so I’m confident [about points].

"Let’s see what we get. Obviously graining was pretty bad for everyone [in practice] this morning, so it’s going to be a nice challenge. I’m looking forward to it."

Gasly's Alpine team mate Franco Colapinto managed to reach the second stage of Sprint Qualifying, but will start the Sprint from P16 after struggling to find enough performance.

"It was tricky today. I didn’t know the track and that made it a bit more difficult," he said.

"I think the car was not in a bad place in FP1, but [it] just wouldn’t do a step into Sprint Qualifying that I wanted. We lacked a bit of pace.

"The car was quick, Pierre showed that, he went through to SQ3, and that’s positive for the team, but I need to understand a bit more on my side."