The Argentine driver didn't change his position and the world champion secured his second victory of the season amid McLaren's dominance
Franco crossed the finish line in 16th place with his Alpine and shared some reflections: "We did well with the tire management, it went as we planned. The Alpine is a difficult car to drive. Very different from the Williams but I'm adapting and surely in the next races I'll be better."
Meanwhile, Pierre Gasly disappointed again. The Frenchman finished 13th and once again did not score points, despite being several times close to the points zone. With this performance, Alpine remains ninth in the constructors' standings with 7 points, all from the French driver.
After this exciting race in Italian lands, F1 travels to the Principality of Monaco next May 25 at 10, Argentine time. Colapinto will try to improve the results shown in Imola and, perhaps, score his first points in his return to the Maximum
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Despite not scoring points, Franco Colapinto had a decent second debut in Formula 1 at the Imola GP. Although he reached the 8th position at one point, the native of Pilar fell to the sixteenth place, where he had started. Meanwhile, Max Verstappen comfortably won the race, and the two McLarens completed the podium, Lando Norris (2nd) and Oscar Piastri (3rd).
The race went by without major incidents, with little action on track and few overtakes. Franco lost two positions at the start and stayed in the train of cars. His first stint lasted 23 laps on medium compound tires, where he reached the eighth place, his best position in the race.
After his pit stop, he returned with hard tires, but was unlucky as the Virtual Safety Car was activated just two laps later. "The virtual Safety Car messed up my strategy a bit," Colapinto stated in his straightforward style once the race was over.
The rest of the race proceeded normally, except for the retirement of Ocon and the time it took to remove Antonelli's Mercedes-Benz, which remained stationary for 10 laps. The competition resumed with ten laps remaining and the highlight was the tense duel between the McLaren drivers, who came close to touching each other.
