Colapinto rues missing Q3 but reveals key for Japanese GP | OneFootball

Qualifying for the Suzuka Grand Prix resulted in a 15th-place finish for Franco Colapinto, who this time only made it to Q2 and will once again start well behind his teammate Pierre Gasly. On the matter, the Argentine was self-critical, said he did not deliver a good performance, and hoped to have a better pace in Sunday’s early-morning race.

“It’s tight. I hope the race pace is a bit better. In qualifying this weekend, we weren’t good. Yesterday we struggled because of an issue we had at the front. Today we improved that, but I’m still far off. Q1 was good, and in Q2 we were lacking a lot. We have to understand why and work on it for tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll have good pace so we can move forward,” he explained to ESPN’s microphones.

The truth is that Colapinto also stressed that his car’s race pace is usually better than its pace in practice and qualifying, since they struggle in practice when doing high-fuel stints. With that in mind, he remained hopeful of improving his level in the main event, where he emphasized that the start will be key, as it was in the Chinese Grand Prix.

Speaking to Alpine’s official media outlet, Colapinto was self-critical and again pointed out the difference in the car’s behavior with more fuel: “In general, this weekend we have really struggled to find pace with low fuel. The car behaves and performs much better with high fuel, which we hope is a good sign for tomorrow.”

For Colapinto, moreover, this weekend marks his debut at Suzuka, something he also made clear by explaining that he is still looking for the keys to the circuit in order to improve: “I have to work with the team to understand a few more things and see how we can improve. It’s my first time racing here; it’s a nice circuit, but also a very technical one, so there are definitely some areas where we still need to improve. Since yesterday, the race pace looked more competitive, so if we can keep that up, we hope to make our way through the field in tomorrow’s Grand Prix.”

Colapinto’s 15th place came from a best time of 1:30.627, just under a second behind Gasly in Q2, as the Frenchman posted a 1:29.874 to make it into the top 10. Then, in Q3, the French driver secured seventh on the grid thanks to a lap of 1:29.691.

Now, the main race at Suzuka will take place this Sunday from 2:00 a.m. Argentina time, over a total of 53 laps, giving Colapinto, as in China, the chance to climb back up the order and add another point to his tally.

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