Gasly emphasises importance of start at Monza

Toro Rosso driver Pierre Gasly has emphasised how crucial it is that his team make an important start at Monza, with the stretch down to the first chicane.

Gasly produced a fine performance in Qualifying yesterday, with the soon-to-be Red Bull driver making his way into Q3 and then secured the ninth fastest lap in a top-ten shootout.

The Frenchman admitted that he wasn't expecting such a result at Monza.

"Today was unbelievable, we didn't know if we could get through to Q2 before Qualifying, and then we made it to Q3," Gasly told F1i.com.

"It was an amazing feeling to be starting in P9, everything went super well during qualifying, I managed to get a good gap and slipstream and put one of my best laps in for the season.

"I think this was clearly the best result we could have achieved in Qualifying, and it's fantastic to have done it at Toro Rosso's home race."

Gasly admitted him and his team were disappointed with how they performed on Friday in the two free practice sessions, but overnight changes to the car seemed to improve it in time for Saturday.

"I didn't feel so great with the car yesterday, but we made some good progress overnight and now I feel much better with it," the Toro Rosso driver revealed. "Today was half of the job done and now we need to finish the other half tomorrow.

"It's a really long way from the grid to Turn One, so it will be crucial to really nail the start, then after that just try to be at the right place at the right time because it's going to be tight.

"When you start further up the grid it's a bit less risky, so I'll try to put my car in the right place to keep it clean, then push as much as possible."