Another Toro Rosso, another Renault issue

Editor

Pierre Gasly may have completed Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix but he did so having “lost completely the power” 200m before the line.

Toro Rosso and Renault had an interesting weekend in Brazil as first the engine manufacturer and then the Formula 1 team blamed the other for Toro Rosso’s recent engine issues.

In the midst of all the fingerpointing, Gasly and his team-mate Brendon Hartley again suffered yet more problems.

While Hartley failed to finish the grand prix, Gasly did so in 12th place but without any power.

“I knew there was something wrong going on because every lap they were like ‘yeah, oil transfer, oil transfer’ – and I knew we had old-spec MGU-K so I was like ‘fuck, hopefully it’s going to last until the end’,” he revealed.

“And then actually 200 metres before the finish line I was full throttle and I lost completely the power on the car.

“I was like ‘bup bup bup bup’, I crossed the line, I think at 60km/h, and I was like ‘what should I do, what should I do?’ and they just told me to park the car.

“I don’t know exactly what was the problem but there was definitely something.”

The Frenchman, though, was nonetheless happy with his P12 on the day.

“I don’t think we could’ve done much better,” he added.

“Finishing 16 seconds behind the Renault, I think definitely our best race and best performance since I arrived in Malaysia.”