Colapinto hit by mechanical failure, triggers first red flag in Bahrain | OneFootball

Franco Colapinto had a challenging start on the first official day of pre-season Formula 1 testing in Bahrain. The Argentine driver caused the first red flag of the year after his Alpine A526 stopped due to a failure at the entrance to turn 8 of the Sakhir circuit.

The car stopped after an hour and a half of activity. Colapinto tried to restart it but was unsuccessful, and a crane had to enter the track to move it to the pits. The team checked the car, and the Argentine was able to return to the track about an hour later, now with medium compound tires, after having used hard ones at the time of the issue.

In his first session, he recorded a time of 1m41s600, which left him in last place among the 11 drivers who took to the track. Later, he improved to 1m40s330, although he did not advance in positions and ended up as the driver with the fewest laps completed, with 28.

The day was led by Max Verstappen (Red Bull), with a time of 1m35s433, followed by Oscar Piastri (McLaren) and George Russell (Mercedes).

The engine performance was once again in focus. Both Colapinto and Pierre Gasly had expressed criticism last season about the lack of power on the straight. Now, Alpine is evaluating the behavior of the new mechanical setup in a testing context that will continue throughout the week in Sakhir.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.