Colapinto hit the wall at the pit lane exit

Franco Colapinto scored his best result in Formula 1 to date despite a “scary moment” when he hit the wall at the pit lane exit.

The Alpine driver slid into a barrier on the outside of turn two after pitting during a Virtual Safety Car period. He was initially concerned he had sustained race-ending damage.

“I crashed, I fucking crashed!” Colapinto exclaimed on his radio. “Idiot.”

However he did not sustain significant damage to his car and lost little time as the race was neutralised. He went on to finish in sixth place, which besides being the best result of his career also matched Alpine’s strongest finish of the season.

Colapinto admitted after the race he was afraid he had thrown away his chances of a good result when he hit the wall.

“It was extremely low grip out there and slippery, especially at the start in the opening laps on a harder compound tyre to those around us,” said Colapinto, who started the race on the medium compound.

“I also had a scary moment exiting the pits after my stop, where I hit a wet patch, then went on the white line and drifted towards the wall. Thankfully I hit the wall side on and got away with a small amount of damage, which didn’t require repairs or impact the performance.”

With Pierre Gasly finishing eighth, Alpine took their highest points score of the season so far.

“From where we started the weekend, to having a double points finish for the team, is a great result and a fantastic reward for everyone at the team who has been working so hard,” said Colapinto. “It’s also my best result in Formula 1, which makes me very happy and builds on the performance we showed in Miami.

“We know we benefitted from others’ misfortune, and it’s never a nice feeling to benefit from their issues, but we maximised everything we could and brought the car home.”

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Keith Collantine

Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 – when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring journalist, Keith began running the site full-time in 2010, achieving a long-held ambition to dedicate his full attention to his passion for motor racing. View all posts by Keith Collantine