After receiving a shocking promotion to Components 1, Franco Colapinto skilled his first style of qualifying on the large stage Saturday on the Italian Grand Prix.
It was a day of blended feelings for the younger driver as he loved the joys of F1 qualifying, however the frustration at being eradicated in Q1. Colapinto was on his ultimate push lap of the primary phase when he made a slight mistake, denying him any likelihood at shifting on.
“It was particular to do my first Qualifying session in F1. I’ve loved each second of the weekend up to now,” described Colapinto in Williams’ post-practice report. “Sadly, I made a little bit mistake on my second push which value me the possibility to do a superb second lap. It was wanting promising as I used to be in a superb place after my first lap and, after all, working in direction of making a step on the second push. The automotive was very aggressive, and I feel it was doable to undergo to Q2 at this time.”
Colapinto sought the silver lining after qualifying, noting the “potential” within the FW46 this weekend in Monza.
“Nevertheless, that is simply the beginning and there are issues I nonetheless must work on with solely having a couple of laps in an F1 automotive. I’m a bit pissed off proper now however I do know there’s quite a lot of potential, and the workforce has been working onerous to make the automotive swimsuit me a bit higher,” continued Colapinto. “Tomorrow will present an ideal alternative to study extra concerning the automotive and tires in addition to managing a full race distance in F1. Let’s see the way it goes.’
On the opposite facet of the storage, Alexander Albon was one of many winners of the afternoon, as he superior into Q3 for simply the fifth time this season. Albon completed ninth on Saturday, giving him and Williams a superb likelihood at bringing some factors house from Monza.
“P9 is nice, so I’m very blissful,” mentioned Albon. “We had been one of the best of the remaining up to now this weekend and that’s the place we hoped to be, however I don’t assume we actually believed we’d be right here, so it’s good. When the automotive continues to ship within the apply periods, it does add a bit of additional stress to verify we ship in Qualifying, nevertheless it all paid off. It’s a really totally different observe to Zandvoort and nearly as good because the upgrades have been, we all know this observe does swimsuit our automotive, however we additionally know that if we didn’t have the improve, we wouldn’t be in Q3, in order that’s a pleasant takeaway.
Albon famous that Nico Hülkenberg of Haas is likely to be his greatest competitors on Sunday. The Haas driver joined Albon in Q3 and can begin alongside him in tenth.
“We had been preventing the Haas all through Qualifying and so they appear to have barely stronger race tempo for tomorrow,” continued Albon. “Graining might be our greatest concern, however let’s see how we go.
