---
title: "Hartley Tells Gasly He’s Sorry After Bizarre Qualifying Near-Miss"
description: "Toro Rosso driver Hartley apologizes to Gasly after bizarre qualifying near miss in Baku."
date: "2018-04-28"
modified: "2018-04-28"
authors:
  - name: "Daan de Geus"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/daan-de-geus"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/accelerator/20479/hartley-tells-gasly-hes-sorry-after-bizarre-qualifying-near-miss"
categories:
  - "F1"
  - "News"
  - "Racing"
tags:
  - "Baku"
  - "Brendon Hartley"
  - "China"
  - "Formula 1"
  - "Pierre Gasly"
  - "Qualifying"
  - "Scuderia Toro Rosso"
---

# Hartley Tells Gasly He’s Sorry After Bizarre Qualifying Near-Miss

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2018/04/gasly-hartley.jpg>)
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Communication between teammates is key, but it seems [Toro Rosso's Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly](<https://www.thedrive.com/start-finish/16098/toro-rosso-expected-to-confirm-gasly-hartley-for-2018-season>) are on somewhat of a different wavelength. Following a clumsy collision in China, where Gasly bumped into Hartley when the team wanted to swap the running order around, the Toro Rosso duo was close to having *the big one* in [Formula 1 qualifying in Baku](<https://www.thedrive.com/accelerator/20474/ferrari-and-sebastian-vettel-on-pole-for-the-2018-azerbaijan-grand-prix>).

In the dying minutes of Q1, with Gasly on the verge of making it through, the Frenchman came up on turn 15 and his trundling teammate, who was nursing a puncture. "I don't know what happened to Brendon but he slowed down massively before turn 15 and I came around the previous corner doing 320 kph (199 mph)," Gasly told reporters at the Baku City Circuit.

"I only just managed to avoid him. I could already see myself go airborne," said Gasly, admitting "It was really scary," as Hartley had a bit of a wiggle to make things just a little hairier. "I'm sure Brendon didn't do it on purpose, if he had a puncture that obviously didn't help."

https://twitter.com/_/status/990218524634296321

Hartley, for his part, said after qualifying that he hadn't spoken to his teammate yet. "But I owe him a big apology," he admitted. Explaining the near miss, Hartley said he was taking it easy checking for damage after he tagged a wall at [the difficult Azerbaijan track](<https://www.thedrive.com/accelerator/11833/formula-ones-wild-and-crazy-azerbaijan-grand-prix>). "I didn't know Pierre was so close behind. It's difficult to see here, with all the walls around the track."

The New-Zealander, too, admitted it could've been a huge accident. "I made a big mistake and I'm sorry for him," he said of Gasly, who ended up having to take to the run-off area. The incident left both Gasly and Hartley unable to make it through to Q2. Gasly ended up in 17th and Hartley in 19th after he failed to set a representative time due to yellow flags earlier in the session.

With two incidents in two races, Gasly probably said it best trying to heed a lesson from the qualifying near miss. "We need to keep a bigger gap between our two cars."

![message-editor%2F1524931829068-ap-1vg86euvw1w11\_hires\_jpeg\_24bit\_rgb.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/message-editor/1524931829068-ap-1vg86euvw1w11_hires_jpeg_24bit_rgb.jpg>)
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