Colapinto reveals Alpine tweak behind Belgium leap among best | OneFootball

Franco Colapinto left behind a quiet start and wrapped up Friday at the Belgian Grand Prix with positive signs. After finishing seventh in the second free practice session, the Alpine driver explained that the changes made between the two sessions 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 driver from Pilar after completing the day’s running at Spa-Francorchamps.

Despite the progress, the Argentine avoided getting complacent and stressed that the work is far from over. “On that side, 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 we struggled a bit more, I think it was a good step forward,” he added.

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

The French team’s summary had another side to it with the other car. Pierre Gasly suffered a crash with 11 minutes left in the session, lost control of the car and hit the barriers, an incident that brought out the red flag and ended the session early.

The Frenchman finished 18th, well off the leading positions. His best official time was 1m48.955s, 3.011s off the pace and 1.808s slower than his teammate. Earlier, he had set a lap that temporarily put him ninth, although 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.