Franco Colapinto had his second classification this Thursday in Formula 2 in Saudi Arabia
, the opening category of Formula 1, and just like in Bahrain, a week ago, the Argentine driver had problems when setting the fastest lap.
In the morning practice session,
Colapinto had touched the wall with his car
trying to find the limits of the circuit to make a good lap.
But in qualifying, the Argentine from the Williams Academy miscalculated and crashed into the wall in the same place.
That crash on the streets of Jeddah caused problems with the rear suspension of his car, but after several minutes in the pits
he was able to take to the track again to set a time of 1:43:078 and finish 13th in the Qualy.
“NOT FRANCO AGAIN!
He hits the wall in the same place as in practice, but manages to continue and returns to the pits,” was the post made by the official Formula 2 account to show the exact moment when with the back of his car, Colapinto left his signature on the wall.
NOT AGAIN FRANCO!
😱
He hits the wall in the same place as he did in Practice, but manages to continue and makes it back to the pits #SaudiArabianGP #F2 pic.twitter.com/KDbTPhv06g
— Formula 2 (@Formula2) March 7, 2024
"A shame. I'm really hot, really. I hit the wall very hard on the first lap. I had been doing a good lap, but I think that not being used to street circuits, I only raced in Monaco, it is the first fast street circuit.
I hit the wall very hard and the right rear was completely bent, all the fast corners are left, which rest on the right rear, I had horrible balance, the steering wheel at 45 degrees.
I couldn't do much, I'm too hot.
I think we could have made a very good Qualy.
It's a shame.
Completely my mistake, I think we had a very good car.
There was much more to do, sorry to the team,” said Franco Colapinto before the cameras once the session was over.
Dennis Hauger, the Argentine's teammate at MP Motorsport, had the best time in practice and in qualifying he set the seventh best time of the session.
Pole
position
and the first two points of the weekend of competition in Saudi Arabia went to Prema Racing driver
Oliver Bearman
.
In second place was Kush Maini, from Invicta, who was denied first place in Bahrain after failing to exceed the height limit in the technique.
This Friday the action for Formula 2 will continue with the Sprint race starting at 12:10 in Argentina and on Saturday with the Feature Race, starting at 10:25 in Argentina.
After this weekend of activity, the Formula 1 support category will have a final race weekend in Australia on March 23, and then enter an extensive rest.
The teams and drivers will reactivate the competition on May 18 at the famous Imola circuit, Italy.