Gasly was happy with weekend off: "The schedule is pretty intense"

The weekend at Mugello started well for Gasly, with even a 5th place in free practice, but in qualifying the AlphaTauri driver had problems with his car. From 16th on the grid, Gasly hoped to make up some places in the race. "Unfortunately the Grand Prix only lasted one corner for me. Too bad, because given the course of the race there would have been opportunities to achieve a good result. But that's racing," said the Frenchman, who is eager to pull off another stunt in Sochi.

The weekend off did him good. "I have to say it was nice to have a weekend without a race because the schedule is pretty intense. It is also important for the mechanics and technicians in the team to take a break. We can reset and come back to Sochi in top form." On his team's website Gasly looks ahead to the next Grand Prix this weekend in Russia. "It's a very different circuit from the last few races we've ridden. It is much slower than Monza and Mugello."

A lot of competition in midfield

Gasly does not yet want to create too high expectations about the opportunities for him in Sochi. "It is an interesting circuit, but it is difficult to say now how well our car will work there." He also expects a lot of competition from the other teams in midfield. "We are in a group that is within three tenths of a second of each other, so it is important that we do everything perfectly if we want to fight with the cars directly in front of us."