Pierre Gasly says Red Bull was “too optimistic” with its approach to qualifying ▨for the Australian Grand Prix on Saturday after finishing 17th following a strategy m𓃲iscall.

Gasly was kept in the pits for the closing stages of Q1 as Red Bull believed he 🌌had met the cut-off time to advance to Q2 without completing a second run, only to be shuffled down the order and eliminated in the first stage of qualifying.

While teammate Max Verstappen was able to qu🀅alify on the second row𒁏 of the grid, Gasly was left disappointed by his second straight Q1 exit in Australia.

The Frenchman explain🍃ed after the session how the rapid track improvement had caꦗught Red Bull out.

“I th🔯ink we’ve been too optimistic as a team. We didn’t expect the track to improve that much on the secon🙈d set,” Gasly said.

“After the fiᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚrst lap - it💧 was a pretty good lap - we thought we would make it through, and was too optimistic.

“They gave mꦗe a cuꦚt-off time which I made, but I think we just got caught out by the track evolution which was a lot bigger than previous years.

“There is no-oꦫne really to blame. It is just a miscalculation, and we just need to review the way we approach things and maybe be a bit more careful in our approꦛach.”

Despite the setbᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚack, Gasly took some heart from Verstappen’s performance as the Dutchman managed to split 🅘Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vetel and Charles Leclerc on the grid.

“I think it’s positive to see that we have the ꦇpotential. I think we knew that,” Gasly saidꦑ.

“I think I ℱfelt better after free practice, FP3 was good. Even on that first lap in Q1, got a bit of traffic, but overall it was a decent lap. I think I ended up one-ten𓆏th behind Max.

“I think the pace was clearly there. It’s just a shame to mis💦s out for 𝄹six-hundredths. We clearly had the pace to go into Q3."

Additional reporting by Michael Lamonato.