Franco Colapinto is more than satisfied with his qualifying performance in Madrid, whilst team-mate Pierre Gasly is struggling with his car after finishing 14th
Qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid ended with the Alpine team experiencing completely contrasting emotions. Whilst Franco Colapinto shone with a strong ninth place on the grid, exceeding expectations, his team-mate Pierre Gasly suffered an inexplicable debacle in 14th place.
For Pierre Gasly, qualifying was a frustrating setback that left more questions than answers. After promising practice sessions, his car’s performance suddenly collapsed completely. “Q1 was a write-off, Q2 was a write-off,” a perplexed Gasly summed up after the session.
“At the moment, I have absolutely no idea how the car could have changed so drastically compared to the rest of the weekend. I felt really comfortable in the car and was very happy with the balance,” said the Frenchman.
The problems went far beyond the normal fluctuations caused by changing track temperatures. The 30-year-old described the car’s handling as completely out of control: “I’m losing tyres in every corner, the car is spinning out, and that’s happening in all the fast sections too. It just feels as though something isn’t quite right.”
When asked whether there might be a fault or a serious set-up error, he confirmed this suspicion: “Yes, something along those lines, because the balance and grip have shifted dramatically. From start to finish of the lap, I spent the whole time countersteering in the opposite direction. It just doesn’t make any sense.”
Gasly expects a race in the middle of nowhere
This setback is particularly bitter for Gasly with Sunday in mind, as the layout of the Madring circuit makes overtaking extremely difficult. The Frenchman is understandably disillusioned: “After yesterday, I was really confident that we could qualify in the top 10 and had the pace to compete there even with a lot of fuel.”
“But to be honest: if the car’s like this tomorrow, I won’t get anywhere. I need to find some answers tonight.”
The situation was quite different on the other side of the Alpine garage. Franco Colapinto put in a strong performance, culminating in a blistering Q2 lap. “The Q2 lap was amazing. I’m very happy and proud of the result, because this track is actually always supposed to be tricky for us,” explains the Argentine.
He originally saw the layout as more of an advantage for Audi’s rivals, as whilst Alpine is strong on the straights and in slow corners, it has weaknesses when it comes to clearing the kerbs. “The fact that we made it into Q3 and are ahead of Audi is a very good result. The Q2 lap was one of the best I’ve ever driven.”
Colapinto nearly flies off the track
Colapinto was literally walking a tightrope. In the fast Turn 12, he experienced a massive scare that would normally ruin any lap time. “That was quite spectacular. We were going at 260 km/h there,” he said of the near-crash.
“In Q2 you just have to push, and I had this massive spin, but I managed to recover the car. Putting the lap together after that is all the more tricky because you lose a lot of confidence after a slip-up like that.”
For Colapinto, the strong result was also a source of personal satisfaction following his frustrating mistake the previous weekend in Italy. “I’ve been working hard since Monza. I think I learnt a lot from the qualifying session there and put in a much better performance here,” he says, drawing a direct comparison.
Although he was nominally further up the order in eighth place at Monza, he believes ninth place in Madrid is worth much more: “We had a car that was much faster than the others at Monza. Today’s qualifying session was absolutely maximised.”