Gasly on chances in sprint race: 'Give it everything in the first few laps'.

Pierre Gasly put in an excellent performance during Friday night's Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying session. The driver finished fifth behind Mercedes and Red Bull Racing, making him the best of the rest.

The Frenchman had not expected this performance prior to qualifying. "I must say that I am extremely happy today because I had a difficult FP1. I didn't feel good in the car and I was making a lot of mistakes. I didn't manage to make it work."

He also experienced the problem during the beginning of qualifying. "Then in qualifying at the start, it was a bit similar but I just focussed on my driving and try to work around the problem I had and probably it was one of my best laps because it wasn't an easy one. It wasn't the balance I wanted but really managed to put everything together," said Gasly, who is confident for Saturday's sprint race. "We will see. We know that in the race the gap seems to get bigger with those cars but we will maximise everything in the first laps."

Moderate performance from Tsunoda

AlphaTauri is undoubtedly relieved at Gasly's performance. His teammate Yuki Tsunoda once again failed to find a good starting position. The Japanese driver finished in 13th place.