Gasly, Hartley downcast after point-less home race for Honda

Toro Rosso Formula 1 drivers Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley made no secret of their disappointment after failing to score any points in Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix, the home race of team engine supplier Honda, despite both starting inside the top 10.

Hartley and Gasly were two of the stand-out drivers in qualifying on Saturday at Suzuka as they secured Toro Rosso’s best grid positions of the year, taking P6 and P7 respectively.

A poor start saw Hartley drop to 10th on the opening lap before fading out of the points, ultimately finishing 13th, while Gasly dropped down the order after struggling towards the end of both stints of the race. He was classified 11th at the chequered flag.

The result came as a disappointment to both drivers, who had hoped to deliver Honda’s first points at Suzuka since 2006.

“We had a good start, I managed to pass Brendon, [Sebastian] Vettel went through pretty quickly. Then the first stint I felt pretty good with the Supersoft, I was close to Grosjean, both Force Indias behind us,” Gasly said.

“The first stint was good, I was P7, and then at the moment, I don’t know why we pitted so late, because I was seventh and then everybody started to pit. We stayed out on track and when we pitted I think I exited behind the two Force Indias, the two Saubers overtook me, one Williams overtook me.

“We fitted the Softs, which were good, I enjoyed the two or three overtakings I had after the pit stop, but really quickly we started to have massive blisters on the rear tyres and 20 laps to the end, I could feel lot of vibration and lot of blisters on the rear which just got worse and worse.

“The last 10 laps, I could not even see on the straight it was vibrating so much. So we could see a lot of energy and temperature on the rear tyre, was trying to survive to the end, which was tough.”

Of his race, Hartley said: “I had really, really poor traction off the line, huge wheelspin, and consequently that massively overheated the tyres for the first five, six laps. I was really, really suffering with traction.

“This then massively overheated the tyres on the rear, and they’re so sensitive that this really affected the entire first stint. I got them back into range, and at the end of the stint, the lap times started to be a bit more competitive.

“I could have stayed out a bit longer, but when we pitted, I was out behind both Williams. It took me quite a few laps to get past Lance Stroll. I did a good overtake on Sirotkin, and then I was stuck behind Marcus Ericsson.

“I had a lot more pace, but with the traction issues that I had, I couldn’t make the overtake, and I started to suffer with the blisters on the tyre at the end. I believe the other car had the same problem and suffered big time.

“I think we’re clearly disappointed not to have any car in the points after such a promising qualifying yesterday.”

Gasly was also frustrated after Toro Rosso was told it could not fix a minor issue on his engine following qualifying on Saturday, despite initially receiving permission from the FIA to do so.

In the pre-race technical notes, it was confirmed that the “post shift ignition retard settings” had been changed on Gasly’s car, only for Toro Rosso to be informed on the grid it had to change the settings back to qualifying-spec.

“I had some calibration issues, so I didn’t have the best setting and it was hurting the reliability, was hurting the power, but also the reliability for the race,” Gasly said.

“It was a pretty big concern ahead of the race, so we asked them if we could change it. Then they first accepted, and then after they reverted.

“I was back [to] yesterday’s setting, which was a bit down on power and not ideal for driveability as well.”