"Upset" Gasly admits he was "too greedy" in qualifying

The Toro Rosso-Honda driver locked up and went off-track at the Turn 3 right-hander on his final attempt in the opening qualifying segment in Melbourne, leaving him 20th and last on the grid.

Gasly believes the mistake denied him a much better result, as he says he was two tenths up on teammate Brendon Hartley before the error – a gap which, if maintained over the rest of the lap, would've comfortably seen him through to Q2.

“It was looking great,” Gasly said. “First run wasn't that clean but second run was coming good, up to Turn 3 I think I was two tenths up on Brendon's lap, it would've put us in the mix for Q2 and that's where I think we should've been.

“The potential was there to be in Q2, so I'm really disappointed. I have been too greedy and in the end it cost us a lot of places, so [it's a] big shame.”

Asked to explain the error, he elaborated: “[I was] just trying to brake slightly later, five metres later than the first run, just locked up and when I tried to turn, it just went straight.

“It's not much but I just pushed over the limit and in the end it cost us massively.

“I didn't do any [mistakes] this year so far and I do one in the f***ing qualifying, first qualifying of the year. For this, I am so upset.”

Teammate Brendon Hartley, 16th on the grid, was “frustrated” to miss out on a Q2 berth by 0.029s, especially as he felt he'd lost time in the first corner.

“I just braked a bit early, underestimated the evolution in grip and threw away two tenths on the inside kerb,” Hartley said.

“The rest of the lap was pretty clean to be honest - everyone will have a similar story.”

Both Toro Rossos did two only runs in Q1 as part of an “aggressive” approach, and Hartley reckoned that using up an extra set of tyres would have all but assured progression.

He stressed, however: “Hindsight’s always brilliant, and one tenth quicker by me and we wouldn’t be having the discussion.”

And despite both of the team's drivers exiting in Q1, Hartley insisted the STR13 was “definitely good enough today”.

He added: “I would say that it’s encouraging that with one or two tenths we could have been three or four places up and just on the cusp of that top-10 position.

“On the other side, it’s just a little bit frustrating to be P16 and not get a chance to fight in Q2. It’s an encouraging start, but 16th is kind of the worst place to be.”

Additional reporting by Edd Straw