Pierre Gasly suffers F1 car damage after ‘very sad’ rabbit strike
Alpine F1 driver Pierre Gasly explains "very sad" moment he hit a rabbit during Friday practice at Imola.
Pierre Gasly suffered damage to his Alpine F1 car after an unfortunate incident during first practice at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
The Frenchman was the star of Friday practice at Imola as he backed up his sixth-quickest time from FP1 by ending the day with the third-fastest time in FP2, just 0.276s behind McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.
But Gasly did suffer a setback in the first practice session when he accidentally hit a rabbit, which caused damage to the front wing and floor of his Alpine.
“Very sadly, I couldn’t tell if it was a small cat or a big rabbit - it turned out it was a big rabbit - just jumping across the track,” Gasly explained.
“I couldn’t avoid it so I had quite a big impact on the front wing, which, unfortunately that was it for the rabbit and for the front wing it was not ideal.
“Not the end of the session we wanted.”
Asked how much damage was done, Gasly replied: “I must say it’s quite unfortunate. Obviously we always try to look after our parts and do the best job we can, so when such things happen it’s not great.
“Quite a bit of damage on the front wing and the floor but the guys managed to do great work to repair it. But I think we could have done without it.”
Gasly hails Alpine’s ‘best Friday’ this year
Despite the sad rabbit strike, it was otherwise a hugely positive day for Gasly, who was a surprise third, ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes, Max Verstappen’s Red Bull and both Ferraris.
While he acknowledged rival teams are likely holding some performance back going into qualifying, Gasly was nevertheless delighted by what he branded as being Alpine’s “best Friday of the year”.
“It’s been a very, very good Friday. From the first lap, I could tell the car was in a much better place than in Miami,” he said.
“I’m glad we managed to answer some of the question marks we had after the last race. Very pleased with the feeling in the car.
“The car reacts the way I want and I’m really able to be at the limit and push it to the maximum, so it’s a nice feeling and the performance is there.
“We know from Friday to Saturday others usually keep a bit more in the pocket but I think it’s quite fair to say it’s probably been the best Friday of the year.”
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