Argentine race driver Franco Colapinto missed out on a points finish despite driving arguably his best race as an Alpine F1 driver, finishing 13th at the Canadian Grand Prix. 

The weekend hadn’t started well for the 22-year-old. After the first three practice sessions, Colapinto had not broken through the top 16 places. However, he found his best form crucially on Saturday afternoon. He turned in his best qualifying performance for Alpine, entering Q2 and only just missing out on a Q3 spot in 12th place. He’d get bumped to 10th after Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda and Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar were penalised.

It was more of the same on Sunday for Colapinto. Lightning quick off the line, he quickly went side to side with former teammate Alex Albon, overtaking the Williams driver into turn three. However, both then lost a place as Albon went off the track while trying to retake the position, compromising the two cars and leaving the space open for Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg to take them both.

After punishing his tires in the fight with Albon, and stuck in a midfield battle with Isack Hadjar, Colapinto went into the pits early on lap 15, along with others running the medium tire near the front. Despite dropping down the order, he was quick enough to emerge without a major loss, with points still a possibility. He kept a solid pace, often running just a few tenths of a second off the leading cars. 

However, Colapinto later got stuck behind Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, who allowed teammate Hulkenberg to build a big gap between himself and the Argentine.It cost the Argentine driver dearly, as the delay meant one-stoppers Esteban Ocon from Haas and Carlos Sainz from Williams overtook him when they had their pitstops. It proved a solid performance despite finishing outside the points, with a 13th place finish.

“I think we didn’t pick the right strategy,” said Colapinto after the race. “It was very hard to overtake on the straight and that complicated things.” 

The Argentine driver regretted the missed opportunity, claiming that the car was “great on clean air,” but that struggles when chasing another driver made tires wear too much.

“It wasn’t the Sunday we wanted,” he added. “We had a bit of bad luck with how the race developed, else we would’ve been in the points. But we have to focus on what comes next.”

Formula 1 is now set to move back to Europe for the next race, with the Austrian GP coming on June 29.