A great result,
the best since he competed in Formula 2
, was achieved early this Saturday by
Franco Colapinto in Melbourne
.
The 20-year-old Argentine started the Sprint on the third date in thirteenth position and thanks to steady and patient work
he was able to finish fifth
.
“I think it was a good race,” analyzed the MP Sports driver.
Despite having a somewhat bumpy start to the race on the Australian circuit, and having a new traction problem in his unit at the start, Colapinto was able to advance some positions before the race was neutralized.
Far from settling, the man from Buenos Aires accelerated fully at the restart and continued climbing the leaderboard.
Two laps from the end, a situation set off alarm bells: the competition management reported that they were analyzing an overtaking maneuver in the twelfth lap with yellow flags, with the Mexican Rafael Villagómez.
“It was risky to try at the end because my tires were worn out and I had already taken risks halfway through the race,” the Argentinean analyzed in the
ESPN
microphones at the end of the competition, when there was still no official resolution about that incident and moments after that
the Frenchman Isack Hadjar celebrated the victory
on the podium alongside the Czech
Roman Stanek
and the Pilarense's teammate, the Norwegian
Dennis Hauger
, who finished
second and third, respectively.
In this way, Colapinto was able to reverse a situation that did not appear favorable to him in Melbourne, after his lackluster production in qualifying.
“Yesterday was a complicated day.
I was very angry because I had a good rhythm,” he lamented.
“But
today we rescued him with a good race
.
The start was bad, we had problems with the clutch this weekend.
But the rest of the race was good.
I chose well in the first corners, I passed a few and then I went forward,” Colapinto said.
Finally, he added: “
We have a good rhythm
and we recovered from another difficult classification.”
His insistence on that ordering round was due to the fact that he committed track limit violations that made him lose some laps, especially the first, where he had set his best time.
That was worth staying up for, wasn't it?
😅🤩#AusGP #F2 pic.twitter.com/aIu0bseMt9
— Formula 2 (@Formula2) March 23, 2024
The 20-year-old Argentine was in eighth position in the classification held at dawn on Friday, but when five minutes were about to expire and also with four remaining, two red flags appeared that prevented the drivers from performing new fast laps.
This led the native of Pilar to fall back to 13th place and have to start from the seventh row in both the Sprint and
the main race this Saturday at 9:35 p.m. (Argentine time),
which will be broadcast by Star+.
In the first final of the season, held in Bahrain, Colapinto had finished sixth.
In the second, in Saudi Arabia, he had to abandon due to a slight brush against a wall.
IS