Franco Colapinto was pleased about the turnaround in F1 US GP to score points, as Esteban Ocon says sorry to the Argentine while Alexander Albon rues Turn 1 contact.
After qualifying failure, it looked like Williams will have a tough day in F1 US GP on Sunday. They didn’t score in sprint either which put skepticism, if the car is good enough to score. And they suffered a further jolt when Albon made contact with Alpine’s Ocon at Turn 1.
The Frenchman was turned around, while Albon seemingly had damage but escaped any penalty for the contact. Colapinto, meanwhile, managed to see-through the early lap shenanigans and eventually extended his stint on the hard compound, which worked as he thought after electing to start on that tyre.
That choice and stint was crucial in the end to score a point. He had another point in his bag until Alpine’s decision to pit Ocon to take away the fastest lap from the Williams driver. Nevertheless, Colapinto was pleased with a point.
“I am happy,” he said to media. “It was a very tough Saturday for us and I think we knew that we had the pace in the car to be strong and to deliver in the race. That’s why I decided to start on the hard to have a bit of clean air. I felt that maybe it was not ideal.
“But I knew that having the pace on the hard, it was going to be better for us, to try and have that pace in the clean air and do the jump on the track, whilst we were on our sequence. And to be honest, when we put in, well, first when we were in clean air on the hards, we were really strong and then once we put the mediums we were flying.
“So it was great to see how we bounced and how we came back stronger after a very difficult day yesterday. It was a tough Saturday for the team but they deserved the point of today and they worked hard for it so it’s well deserved. We had the fastest lap, he took it out with new tyres, it is not being about close.
“I did it many laps earlier on an older tyre and we held it as they couldn’t match with our pace. They had to put new tyres with low fuel to try to take it from us. They weren’t close to us, in terms of pace. Look, it is part of racing, I wanted to keep it, but it is fine, we had it for a while, it is a point that we lost but I am sure we will recover it quick.
“We have a good car and capable to score, so we will comeback stronger,” summed up Colapinto, as Ocon felt sorry for the Argentine. His race was compromised by Albon’s contact as well. “It was from Alex, honestly, I don’t know because I haven’t reviewed the incident,” said Ocon to media.
“So, yeah, the race was compromised unfortunately from that, we recovered 2-3 positions but we were not in contention for anything special. The only thing at the end was to recover the fastest lap, get it away from Williams and Franco.
“We managed to that successfully but the car was difficult for us to drive and I was compromised from the start which is a shame because the pace…I think we could have been near the Top 10, probably not in Top 10. It is a battle for everything, in the end a point is a Top 10 finish, it is important.
“Sorry to him because he deserved it, but that’s how it is. I am really looking forward to Mexico, hopefully I’ll have the upgrades and hopefully I can have a normal weekend and fight with others,” summed up Ocon. On the other end, Albon felt undone by the Turn 1 contact and reckoned they would retire the car at one point.
“I feel like I got a little bit pinched on Turn 1 and once I had damage, that was it,” said Albon. “Particularly through left-handers, it was really bad. It was one of those races where I thought we would retire the car. Not too sure why we didn’t. I imagine it was just to help Franco if he needed in his race.
“I don’t know, we were struggling on softs all-weekend, struggling a lot with locking, and that was it. Honestly, the pace was okay but it was hard to know. The sprint race was not too bad, I think Franco had a decent pace, the hards for us was a much better tyres than the mediums.
“I don’t know how it felt with the other cars, some teams preferred the mediums and some hard. It seem like this weekend, the harder the compound, the better it was for our car, so we need to understand why that was the case. I spent much of my race on the used mediums,” summed up Albon.
Here’s how F1 US GP panned out
Here’s how F1 US GP sprint panned out
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