Pierre Gasly has hailed Toro Rosso’s Formula 1 engine partner Honda for taking a  “massive step” forward in performance at last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix. 

Th🐼e Frenchman sealed a brilliant fourth-place finish for the Faenza-based squad in Bahrain, after progressing into Q3 and ൩setting the sixth-fastest time during qualifying. 

Gasly’s fourth place marked the Japanese engine manufactureꦺr’s best result since its return to F1, having endured a torrid three-year spell with McLaren plagued by poor reliability and a lack of performance. 

The result contrasted greatly to the team’s performance in Melbourne’s season-opener, where Toro Rosso failed to score a single point after both drivers were knocked out in🐎 Q1, with Gasly qualifying last. 

“They did a massive 🍌step, definitely,” Gasly said. “It's still difficult to compare exactly, so I don't want to give any numbers, but they gave quite a big step.

“We brought a new MGU-H this weekend w꧂hich is only reliability. We are surprised to be that good, there was no pe🐷rformance really in two weeks. Finally we changed the setup, and I think the aero platform is much better. 

“We seem to have more load and a bit less drag. It improved everything, our corner speed and the straight line loo🐼ked pretty good all weekend. To finish fourth in Formula 1, you need to have a good engine, so the engine is good.”

The 2016 GP2 champion, who labelled his first F1 points score in his seventh race as feeling similar to winning a grand prix, 🔥hopes Toro Rosso can continue to make progress with Honda throughout the campaign. 

“The pace was strong. I saw that we were faster than Magnussen behind. I don't know compared to the other guys behind, compared to the Renaults, but we were fast on both c💫ompounds as well with no degradation. 

“So definitely understood much more this weekend than in Mel𒅌bourne about our car setup and the tyr𝓀es. I really hope it's going to be useful for us for the next couple of races.”