Pierre Gasly: Toro Rosso “didn’t have the speed” in Russia

Pierre Gasly says that Toro Rosso “didn’t have the speed” to contend with the top 10 due to overheating issues leaving the car unable to perform as it had done in practice.

Gasly just missed out on Q3 at Sochi as he qualified 11th and then started 16th because of taking on a new engine for the weekend after setting top 10 pace during practice on the Friday.
 
But the pace in practice and qualifying did not translate into the race as Gasly finished P14 of 15 classified finishers while teammate Daniil Kvyat was only two places ahead.
 
“It was quite difficult, a lot of overheating issues, all the race, and we just didn’t have the speed to fight for the top 10,” said Gasly (quoted by MotorsportWeek).
 
“It was quite difficult inside the cockpit, just underperformed compared to what we’ve shown all weekend. I need to understand and analyse why and bring everything back for Suzuka.
 
“It was the hottest day of the weekend and in FP2 we looked pretty strong in the long-run, but in the race we had a lot less pace, so in these hotter conditions we just seemed to struggle more.”
 
The Frenchman and Kvyat battled it out track during the race for the possibility of a points finish on the cards but was unsuccessful.
 
“You always try to fight for the position you have,” Gasly added.
 
“At that time we were 12th so always imaging if something happens in front of you it’s 10th, tried to do what I could, braking wasn’t easiest so made it tricky for the battles but I tried my best.
 
“When you battle you always go over the limit, I was on the marbles, tried to out-brake him on the inside on the marbles, didn’t work.”