Gasly forced to revert to old Honda engine

Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly has reflected on a “tough” qualifying session after having to swap to an old-spec Honda engine in Canada.

Gasly was one of the victims of Q1 and his task of avoiding an early exit was made even harder after Honda announced that they had discovered an issue with his upgraded power unit which is being used for the first time in Montreal.

The Frenchman missed out on Q2 by less than a tenth of a second and will line up from P16 in Sunday’s race.

“We had an issue with the engine in P3, with the new upgrade, we had to revert to the engine [we used] in Monaco,” Gasly told Sky Sports after the session.

“On a track like Canada the top speed is massively important and it made qualifying quite tough. It’s always frustrating to miss out with such a small gap.”

But Gasly has been encouraged by the performance of the new Honda power unit, when it is working, and is looking forward to having it back soon.

“The positive, Brendon did a good job with the upgrades so I just can’t wait to put this back on my car as soon as possible,” Gasly added.

“The speed in the straight, when you put the power down you have more from the engine.

“On a track like Canada where you have such long straights, the gain of lap time is quite important.”

Team-mate Hartley qualified in P12.