Alpine finished Saturday’s (25) qualifying session at the Formula 1 Hungarian GP resigned. While Pierre Gasly acknowledged that he performed better than expected, Franco Colapinto pointed out that the seventh row was the maximum possible.
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The team’s Frenchman came close to advancing to Q3, finishing near tenth position and will start from 12th place at Hungaroring, on the sixth row of the grid. “If we consider where we started the weekend and the relative pace compared to others, it must be said that being two tenths off the top 10 and beating an Audi is probably better than we expected before the session,” he said.
“We achieved that time using only one set of soft tires, so, in a way, we can be satisfied with our evolution since yesterday. On the other hand, I am facing many difficulties and the feeling when driving the car is not good. We simply lack pace at the moment and are far behind the front of the midfield, which is where we need to be. Here, specifically on a fast lap, I can’t drive as I like; the balance is not ideal and the car is very loose at the rear, which costs lap time and also overloads the tires,” he continued.
“The forecast is for the wind to pick up tomorrow, which could make things interesting, and we saved a new set of hard tires for the race. Given the speed of our direct competitors, we will have to make a good start and try something different to overcome them during the race. Overtaking here can be quite difficult, but we will give our best and see where we finish,” he added.
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Meanwhile, the Argentine will start right behind, in 13th, and acknowledged that he extracted the maximum from the car and Alpine couldn’t achieve much more. “Today I was still playing catch-up due to what happened yesterday and the lost track time, but, ultimately, 13th place is where we are this weekend. We had a lot of work in the second session, which was windy and had a difficult car to drive, and I ended up doing only three or four fast laps, as I went off track in the last corner,” he said.
“So, today we had to make up for lost time; it felt like a sprint weekend, and I think we performed well trying to improve the car. We were navigating a bit in the unknown, but we did a good job as a team. On my last lap, we lost a bit of grip in the initial section, but we recovered in sectors two and three. It’s a shame, but I think that’s where we should be with the car we have,” he continued.
“We are awaiting the planned updates and hope they represent a big leap in performance, as we are a bit disadvantaged this weekend. Hopefully, tomorrow we can catch up with our rivals and fight for points, just like we did in the last round, in Spa. It’s a difficult track for overtaking, but we usually have better race pace; therefore, we will try our best and achieve a good result for the team before the summer break,” he concluded.
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