Gasly hopes to be "on top of midfield" in China

On the back of a fantastic result in Bahrain, Toro Rosso's Pierre Gasly has said he doesn't know how he will perform in Shanghai this weekend, as his team were very slow in Australia but then performed superbly in Bahrain.

Last week, the Frenchman already turned heads when he qualified in sixth (and started from fifth as Hamilton had a penalty), five places above his teammate Brendon Hartley and seven places (!) above the first McLaren.

Gasly was then expected to finish significantly lower than his starting position, as the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen started behind him. Fast forward to Sunday evening, and Gasly crossed the finish line in fourth place. Sure, there was a bit of luck involved, but nevertheless a very impressive outing from both the team and Gasly himself. Now the question is: how will he follow that performance up?

"It's not going to be as easy," he told Autosport on Thursday.

It's unlikely Toro Rosso will replicate last week's exceptional performance, but we'll be sure to keep an eye on developments at the team. Reliability might still be an issue, but there's no question that the team has made a big leap in performance.