FP1 star Gasly ruled out of second practice at Styrian GP after power unit issue

Pierre Gasly got his Styrian Grand Prix weekend off to a bang after going second fastest in Free Practice 1, just behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. But Gasly wasn’t given the chance to carry that performance through to FP2, after a power unit issue was discovered on his AlphaTauri AT02.

Gasly ended up splitting Verstappen and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton in FP1, the only driver to get within three-tenths of the Dutch driver as Gasly set a lap time 0.256s slower than Verstappen.

But a statement from Honda Racing announced that Gasly had been ruled out of FP2 while an issue on his power unit was checked out.

LIVE COVERAGE: Follow all the action from second practice for the Styrian GP at the Red Bull Ring

“After FP1, we noticed something on the data from [Gasly]'s PU,” Honda tweeted. “Unfortunately, it will take some time to check, so he will not be taking part in FP2.”

It will be a blow to the Frenchman, especially with Friday running time reduced from 180 to 120 minutes this season – although Gasly will at least be cheered by his fine performance in the morning session. It leaves Yuki Tsunoda as the sole remaining AlphaTauri driver in the FP2 session in Austria.