Colapinto reveals Alpine tweak behind Belgium breakthrough | OneFootball

Franco Colapinto put a quiet start behind him and ended Friday at the Belgian Grand Prix on a positive note. After finishing seventh in the second free practice session, the Alpine driver explained that the changes made between the two runs were key to improving the behavior of the A526 and aiming for more points in the Formula 1 season.

“It was a good session, a good day overall. I felt more comfortable and I was competitive. We made a couple of changes to the car that helped,” said the Pilar-born driver after completing the day’s running at Spa-Francorchamps.

Despite the progress, the Argentine refused to settle and stressed that the work is far from over. “In that sense, I’m happy, but we have to keep working. There’s a lot to improve on the car. It was a good step, but we have to keep going like this. Coming from the last few weekends, when things were a bit more difficult for us, I think it was a good improvement,” he added.

The progress was reflected in the lap times. After placing 15th in the first practice session, the Argentine found better pace after the team’s adjustments and climbed to seventh with a lap of 1m47.147s on soft tires. He was 1.203s behind session leader Kimi Antonelli, who posted a 1m45.944s for Mercedes.

The French team’s overall picture had a different side on the other side of the garage. Pierre Gasly crashed with 11 minutes remaining in the session, lost control of the car and hit the barriers, an incident that brought out the red flag and brought the session to an early end.

The Frenchman finished 18th, well off the front-running positions. His best official time was 1m48.955s, 3.011s off the pace and 1.808s slower than his teammate. He had earlier set a lap good enough for a provisional ninth place, but it was deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 4.

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