Gasly baffled by "strange" fiery end to Bahrain GP

AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly has conceded it "strange" the issues that afflicted Red Bull Powertrains during a catastrophic conclusion to the Bahrain Grand Prix were not foreseen.

Gasly's race finished in flames as he was running in eighth heading into the closing stages when his AT03 cut out entering turn two, forcing him to park at the side of the track and escape the scene as a fire engulfed the rear of the car.

Explaining his own problem initially issue, Gasly said: "Just out of turn one, the whole car switched off. I parked it and then after it just caught fire.

"Not the finish we would have liked and especially after the race was going so well.

"We had a great start, a great battle with Fernando [Alonso], which was pretty fun, and after also with Kevin [Magnussen]. We were in P8 quite comfortably so just a big shame to miss out on these points."

Gasly's failure preceded two more suspected Red Bull power unit issues, related to the fuel system following an initial diagnosis, with both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez retiring in the final stages of the race.

"Clearly, there is something going on but what is strange is we didn't see it coming," he added.

"We need a bit more time to analyse but for us, between Red Bull and AlphaTauri, we lost big points.

"We were super confident after testing, we didn't have one single issue but it shows that this sport keeps you grounded all the time. You can never be overconfident about anything.

"It is motorsports. I just hope the engine is not done because already [it would be] 22 races with two engines but yeah, we will deal with it."

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