Gasly hails ‘best Friday of the year’ with P3 in Imola after bouncing back from ‘unfortunate’ FP1 incident

Pierre Gasly was thrilled to end Free Practice 2 at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in P3 on the timesheets, with the Frenchman pleased to experience a good feeling in the car after picking up some damage in an unusual incident at the end of Free Practice 1.

While McLaren repeated their first practice success by again taking a 1-2 in the second hour of running – courtesy of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris – Gasly proved to be their closest challenger after setting the third quickest time in FP2, putting him ahead of the likes of George Russell and Max Verstappen.

FP2: Piastri leads another McLaren 1-2 at Imola as Hadjar brings out red flags

The Alpine driver could not keep the smile from his face as he reflected following the session: “It’s been a very, very good Friday. From the first lap I could tell the car was in a much better place than in Miami.

“I’m glad we managed to answer some of the question marks we had after the last race. Very pleased with the feeling in the car, the car reacts the way I want. I’m really able to be at the limit and push it to the maximum, so it’s a nice feeling.

IMOLA, ITALY - MAY 16: Pierre Gasly of France driving the (10) Alpine F1 A525 Renault on track — Gasly was delighted with how his Friday ended at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix

“The performance is there, obviously we know from Friday to Saturday the others usually keep a bit more in their pocket, but I think it’s quite fair to say it’s probably been the best Friday so far this year.”

Achieving such a result marked quite a turnaround after a tricky end to first practice in which Gasly’s car made contact with an animal that was unfortunately crossing the track.

AS IT HAPPENED: Follow all the action from second practice for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix

“Very sadly there was a… I could see, I couldn’t tell if it was a small cat or a big rabbit,” the 29-year-old explained. “It turned out that it was a big rabbit just jumping across the track and I could not avoid it, so I had quite a big impact on the front wing.

“Unfortunately that was it for the rabbit and also broke the front wing, [it] was not ideal but, yeah, not the end of the session we wanted.”

FP1 Highlights: 2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

In terms of the damage sustained – and the work done to repair this in time for FP2 – Gasly continued: “I must say, it’s quite unfortunate because obviously we always try to look after our parts and do the best job we can, so when such things happen it’s not great.

“[There was] quite a bit of damage on the front wing and the floor, some of it the guys managed to do great work [on] and repair, but I think we would have all [rather] done without it.”

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Looking ahead to Saturday at Imola, Gasly is confident that he can put himself into a decent position come Qualifying. When asked if he feels in the mix this weekend to fight for decent points, the Alpine driver said: “I think for Q3, yes.

“We know that the field can have all come slightly closer together on Saturday but, with what I’m feeling at the moment, if we manage to keep that momentum, find a little bit more pace for tomorrow, I think we should be in the mix for the top 10 which is exciting. I’m pleased and excited to see the rest of the weekend.”