“We’re closer to the front than we’ve ever been” - Pierre Gasly has high hopes from Alpine after a good day at the office in Monaco

Alpine driver Pierre Gasly believes that the team has been making good progress and is at their competitive best in Monaco this season.

Gasly's teammate Esteban Ocon surprised everyone during qualifying at the Monaco Grand Prix by finishing P4. With Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who qualified P3, being handed a three-place grid penalty, Ocon has moved up a place and will now sit right behind pole setter Max Verstappen on the grid. Gasly, on the other hand, will start the race in P7.

When asked about the team's qualifying performance in Monaco, Gasly expressed optimism in the car's potential and satisfaction with the overall progress. He said (via Motorsport.com):

“A very good day for the team, very positive step forward compared to the first few races and they did a very good job. Overall I’m satisfied to see we’re making progress as a team.”

He added:

“I think what I’m saying is overall we’re closer to the front than we’ve ever been so far this year, and that’s definitely positive. It means we’re getting more from the package we’ve got and that’s the most important. Hopefully we can build up from Miami, this is better and hopefully what we see from us in the coming races will be even better.”

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Pierre Gasly “frustrated and disappointed” with his Monaco GP qualifying performance

While happy with Alpine's progress, Pierre Gasly expressed regret in not getting more out of his car in the third phase of qualifying. He stated that he was unsure why he lost performance in the latter part of qualifying.

He opined:

“My side [is] obviously frustrated and disappointed with Q3, because we didn’t do the lap when we had to do it. Locked too much the rear, sliding way too much on some of the entries, but at the end of the day that’s what you have in Monaco.”

He added:

“Just rear locked. Been struggling the whole weekend with that and fortunately Q2 we managed to get that under control and Q3 was again worse. I don’t really have answers for now but we’ll see.”

That said, Gasly believes that splitting the two Mercedes cars on the Monaco grid (Lewis Hamilton P5, George Russell P8) was proof of the team's progress. He opined:

“Today we still feel like it wasn’t a perfect job and then we are splitting two Mercedes, so you’ve got to look at it in an objective way and see we are making progress and work from there.”