Franco Colapinto was left visibly emotional after a mistake at Turn 5 dashed his hopes of a maiden podium at the Italian Grand Prix. The Alpine driver had been one of the stars of the weekend, even overtaking Max Verstappen during the restart before sliding into the gravel.
Starting from seventh, Colapinto had climbed to fourth before the red flag was brought out for Charles Leclerc's crash. On the restart, he made a bold move on Verstappen to take third, but his race unravelled moments later.
Losing the rear of his car at Turn 5, he ran wide and rejoined down in 16th. He eventually crossed the line ninth, collecting just two points. Meanwhile, teammate Pierre Gasly could only manage seventh despite starting from pole.
The 23-year-old was tearful in his post-race interviews, telling ESPN Argentina: "It could have been a great race and [I made] a major mistake, so I wasted a very important opportunity for the team and for myself. So, I'm a bit sad, but I need to learn from this and I keep on pushing."
Colapinto expressed frustration at throwing away what looked like a strong result. "I'm just frustrated. I did some good stuff, and I just lost the car completely in Turn 5, 6. I was doing some good things, between P3 together, and you feel so strong as well, and fighting with the top teams. You get very motivated very quickly, and something like that, it throws it all away," he added.
He was unsure what caused the spin, saying: "I don't really understand yet what happened. I think the car was very aggressive, and I went very flat over the curb, and that didn't help." Despite the disappointment, he acknowledged the thrill of battling the frontrunners: "It's cool to be fighting with the top cars and top teams, we cannot believe it. That's why to just miss an opportunity like this, it's very bad."
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