Pierre Gasly has described his fourth-place finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix as feeling like a Formula 1 race victory for Toro Rosso.&nbs🦹p;

After a brilliant performance to set the sixth fastest time in his Honda-powered Toro Rosso during qualifying, the Frenchman started from fifth after Lewis Hamilton was hit by a five-place grid penalty for changing his geaওrbox.

Gasly profited from Daniel Ricciardo’s retirement to move into fourth, a position he held throughout during a lonely run to the chequered flag, securing his best finish in F1 as well as matching the Faenza-based squad’s second-best ever result. 

Fourth place also handed Honda a timely boost as the Japanese eng💟ine manufacturer celebraꦐted its best result since returning to F1, following a disastrous three-year spell with McLaren. 

“For the team it feels like [a win],” Gasly said. “It's the best result for Honda as well since they came back. To give the best result of Honda in🐈 the last 10 years, after the experience I had with them in Super Formula, I h🙈ad quite a close relationship with them.

“I think it's just building the confiden🦄ce of everyone and show them that we need to keep pushing because we have a good potential this year. They had a tough couple of years. It's a great way to motivate them and show them they need to be pushing. 

“To have my best qualifying ever in Q3 already was massively satisfying, but I think nothing can beat the feeling that we had with this fourth position. For me, hone🌃stly, it's just amazing. 

“I never expected at the beginning of the seasonꦉ to be fightinꦬg for this kind of position,” he added. “Of course as a driver, I'm a super-competitive person, and I want to be at the top, but you need to give time to everything."

Gasly revealed he had to contend with a “scary” brake problem during the early stages in Bahrain, which c﷽aused his car ꦗto experience a sudden loss of performance. 

“I think after 10 or 11 laps, I lost the brake in Turn 11. The car started to slow down massively and I lost like 1.5 seconds. I was🦹 like 'what's going on, what's going on?' 

“It just came back straight after, ♎but it was a bit scary. After that, everything went super well. The strategy was great, the car was fast, and I managed to put some quick laps.”