It was an unremarkable Italian Formula 1 Grand Prix for Argentine race driver Franco Colapinto, who finished 17th and never seemed set to climb the ranks.

The race was bound to be difficult for the 22-year-old driver. The Monza track favours high power and top speed, something the Alpine car struggles with. After narrowly missing out on a Q2 berth in Saturday’s Qualifying, he launched 17th after Racing Bull’s Isack Hadjar was penalized.

In Sunday’s race, Colapinto had a clean start and was able to hold his position into the chicane at turn one. The Argentine held a solid pace and only lost a position to Hadjar on lap 14. He started to climb up positions and cars veered into the pits to change tires, at one point running as high as 12th.

On lap 31, he missed his braking point on turn one and went slightly off the track, allowing teammate Pierre Gasly to overtake him. Two laps later he reached his highest position, sitting 11th after two further cars stopped, but slid back down again as he came to the pits on lap 34 to change his tires, dropping all the way to 18th, last of the running cars.

From there, he struggled to shrink the distance to Racing Bull’s Liam Lawson. He climbed two positions after Gasly and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll stopped, but he was asked to give the position back to his teammate, ending the race in 17th.

“It was a very long, very hard race for us,” said a visibly exhausted Colapinto after the race. “We had no pace so I was alone for most of it. So, I’m just a bit disappointed and we have to improve in the next race.”

The Argentine racer added he felt there was “very little” he could have done to improve, in a race where even the front runners found few opportunities to make gains.

There will be a two-week gap until the next F1, with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix set to take place on Sunday, September 21.