‘We were not expecting to be so strong’ says overjoyed Colapinto after adding to his points tally in Austin

Franco Colapinto’s impressive start to his F1 career continued in Austin, as the Williams rookie brought home a point for the team on a day where their immediate championship rivals failed to score.

Starting 15th, Colapinto was one of five drivers to gamble on a hard tyre start. That proved to be the right strategy as he climbed up the order on a long first stint and eventually finished P10. The Argentine showed impressive defensive skills too, managing to keep a freshly-shod Sergio Perez at bay for lap after lap midway through the race.

Having started in the top 10 for the Sprint only to fall backwards, the result was extra sweet for Williams, who were having a tricky weekend, with spins for both drivers and a brace of disappointing Q1 exits from Saturday’s qualifying.

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“I think more than the point, I’m happy for the pace we had and how strong we were in the race,” Colapinto said afterwards. “After a very tough Saturday for us, we bounced back and showed the pace we had and we were one of the strongest in the midfield.

“That’s really positive for us and what we were looking for. And I think after such a tough Saturday for the team, to have this point, to have the pace, to have the fastest lap until the end of the race, it’s something else, you know.”

Colapinto’s race could have been even better, as he did have the fastest lap until right at the very end, when rivals Alpine pitted Esteban Ocon for soft tyres to deny Williams that bonus point. But scoring still enabled Williams to increase their gap over Alpine in the championship, which stands now at four points with five races remaining.

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“After a tough quali for me, I’m happy with how we controlled the tyres and in clean air we showed we are stronger than the others and at the end on the mediums we were super quick until the end of the race. Happy but a lot still to learn and a lot to improve on myself as well but it is a solid start,” continued Colapinto.

He might owe his team mate a drink after Austin though, with Alex Albon doing his bit to slow down some other cars to help Colapinto to escape up the road. Having had contact at the start with Ocon, Albon’s race was compromised by damage – but he fought hard with the likes of Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly to delay them in fighting back up the order and challenging Colapinto.

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“I felt I got a little bit pinched in the start so I didn’t have anywhere to go. And then we had damage and that was really it,” said a rueful Albon after finishing 16th.

“I thought we were going to retire. It felt like the kind of race where you wouldn’t mind a retirement but we played the long game, tried to help Franco after the damage, tried to hold back some of the cars behind him and then that was it really.”