With upgrades, Colapinto was 8th in FP1 at Spielberg

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·26 June 2026

With upgrades, Colapinto was 8th in FP1 at Spielberg

The Argentine driver had a solid start to proceedings at the Red Bull Ring during the first free practice session (FP1) of the Austrian Grand Prix. Behind the wheel of his Alpine, Colapinto used the session to assess aerodynamic upgrades and finished in eighth place, showing competitive pace from the outset.

Focus on upgrades and a strong presence on track

The session got underway early with a packed agenda for the Alpine team, which focused its efforts on testing different wing setups to gather key data ahead of qualifying and the race.

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Colapinto adapted quickly and spent much of the session among the front-runners:

He climbed as high as third in the opening minutes, behind Kimi Antonelli and Alex Albon.
Around the midway point of the session, he settled into fourth place.
Toward the end, Lando Norris (McLaren) improved his time after overcoming hydraulic issues, which dropped the Argentine to a final 8th place, just under one and a half seconds off the lead.
He clearly outpaced his teammate, Pierre Gasly, who finished 14th.

Mercedes dominated, and the session ended with a red flag

Young Kimi Antonelli set the fastest time in FP1 with a 1:07.796, followed very closely by his Mercedes teammate George Russell (just 0.040 seconds behind). Oscar Piastri (McLaren) completed the top three in the session.

The session was not without incidents: Max Verstappen suffered a problem just after leaving the pits, which brought out an early yellow flag, and the session ended one minute earlier than scheduled with a red flag after Sergio “Checo” Pérez’s Red Bull came to a stop on track.

⏱️ Austrian GP schedule (Argentina time)

As this is a Sprint weekend, teams have only one free practice session, increasing the challenge of adapting quickly. Franco’s schedule continues as follows:

A technical challenge in Spielberg

The Red Bull Ring is a short circuit (4.3 km) but extremely demanding, characterized by full-speed straights and heavy braking zones on uphill and downhill sections. For Colapinto, this edition represents a great opportunity for redemption and growth with Alpine, as he looks to improve on the 15th-place finish he achieved at this same venue during the 2025 season.

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