Colapinto shines in Bahrain tests: top 10, beats team-mate | OneFootball

The Argentine signed his best lap since the F1 pre-season tests began with Alpine, improved by half a second over his teammate, and closed out a day of strong progress.

The second week of Formula 1 pre-season testing in Bahrain sent a clear signal for Franco Colapinto. After a complicated morning, the Argentine driver turned things around in the afternoon session, set his best time since the start of testing with Alpine, and finished eighth on the overall leaderboard, decisively outperforming Pierre Gasly, his teammate.

The day hadn’t started easy for the driver from Pilar. During the morning session, the A526 showed some issues that limited his running and left him with few laps and modest times. However, the technical team’s fine-tuning paid off: in the second session, Colapinto hit the track with a much more balanced car and managed to push it to the limit.

The Argentine placed among the ten fastest of the day with a 1:35.475, coming very close to Carlos Sainz’s (Williams) time. He also put almost half a second between himself and Gasly—a detail that did not go unnoticed in the Alpine garage.

Beyond the impact of the comparative result between drivers, the day left encouraging conclusions for the Enstone-based team. Gasly, who had run in the morning, completed 61 laps without issues and provided key information to help correct the car’s behavior. That foundation allowed Colapinto to move forward more freely in the afternoon and show a clear performance leap.

The Frenchman had closed the initial session with a time of 1m35s898, while the Argentine managed to significantly improve on that in similar track conditions, confirming a marked evolution compared to the first week of testing.

The fastest of the day was once again Charles Leclerc, with Ferrari, followed by Lando Norris (McLaren) and Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes). In that context, Colapinto’s eighth place is even more valuable, especially considering it’s his best lap since pre-season began and a key session for consolidating himself within the Alpine project.

The schedule shows that the Argentine will be back in strong action on track on Thursday, while Gasly will complete the activity on Friday. In addition, Colapinto will speak to the press that same day, in a session that promises to keep the spotlight firmly on his performance after this statement result in Bahrain.

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