FORMULA ONE star Pierre Gasly suffered damage to his Alpine F1 car after hitting a RABBIT during first practice at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
The Frenchman was the shock package of Friday practice at Imola as he backed up his sixth-quickest time from FP1.
He ended the day with the third-fastest time in FP2, just 0.276s behind McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.
But Gasly suffered a bizarre setback in the first practice session when he accidentally hit a rabbit – which caused damage to the front wing and floor of his Alpine.
He said: “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.
“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.
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“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.
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“But I think we could have done without it.”
Despite the sad rabbit strike, it was the “best Friday of the year” for Gasly, who was a surprise third, ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes, Max Verstappen’s Red Bull and both Ferraris.
He said: “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.
“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.”
Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
