Franco Colapinto was emotional in Monza after losing the rear of his Alpine whilst battling for a potential podium.
Alpine showed impressive pace throughout the Italian GP weekend. Pierre Gasly took his first pole position, with Colapinto starting the race from P7.
The Argentinian driver worked his way up to fourth before the red flags came out for Charles Leclerc’s unfortunate crash . On the restart, Colapinto passed Max Verstappen for third but lost the rear of his car in Turn 5 and slid into the gravel.
He was able to continue the race without damage, but came back onto the track in P16.
The 23-year-old was tearful in his post-race interviews, saying he felt sad to have missed out on what could have been in Monza.
“It could have been a great race and [I made] a major mistake, so I wasted a very important opportunity for the team and for myself,” he told ESPN Argentina.
“So, I’m a bit sad, but I need to learn from this and I keep on pushing.”
Franco Colapinto “frustrated” with costly error
Colapinto took the chequered flag in ninth place, earning two points for his team. Despite starting on pole, Gasly finished in seventh, only two places ahead of his teammate even after Colapinto’s excursion.
“I’m just frustrated. I did some good stuff, and I just lost the car completely in Turn 5, 6,” Colapinto added.
“I was doing some good things, between P3 together, and you feel so strong as well, and fighting with the top teams. You get very motivated very quickly, and something like that, it throws it all away.
“I don’t really understand yet what happened. I think the car was very aggressive, and I went very flat over the curb, and that didn’t help.”
“It was okay,” he said on overtaking Verstappen at the restart.
“When you’re on the car, you don’t really feel the difference. It’s one after another. Yeah, it’s cool to be fighting with the top cars and top teams, we cannot believe it. That’s why to just miss an opportunity like this, it’s very bad.”
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