Argentine racer Franco Colapinto finished 16th in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix race on Sunday on his return to Formula 1 racing. It was the Argentine driver’s first race since December as he made his debut with new team Alpine F1.

It was a mixed debut for Colapinto. Despite a solid start, he got bogged down between the Kick Sauber cars of Germany’s Nico Hulkenberg and Brazil’s Gabriel Bortoleto and was unable to profit, eventually losing a place to the German.

A mistake by teammate Pierre Gasly, who went off the track fighting Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc after running in ninth allowed the Argentine through, who ran as high as eighth position when the first round of pitstops started.

However, he lost pace as the race progressed and his pit stop came at the worst possible time. Esteban Ocon’s Haas gave up on him just as Colapinto veered into the pits, meaning a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) arrived at the worst possible moment for the man from Pilar, allowing those who hadn’t stopped to do so without losing as much time. 

Despite that, he once again lost pace as his tyres got older, and on lap 44, Alpine ordered him to swap positions with the Frenchman, to let him try and gain more positions.

Lap 47 brought a Safety Car as Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli lost power at a tricky part of the track. This time, it was to Colapinto’s aid, allowing him an efficient pitstop at a moment when he was losing time to Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson.

Colapinto positioned himself 16th and was able to hold the position to finish in the same place he started the race after crashing out in qualifying yesterday

“Our goal today was to finish the race,” Colapinto told ESPN Argentina. “It would’ve been tricky to score points from where we started.”

The Argentine driver said he and his team shifted the initial strategy as the race progressed, seeing the durability of the medium tyres, but that the VSC “screwed his race a little bit.”

“It’s a shame about that, but overall it was a positive day,” he said.

Colapinto admitted he struggled to adapt to the Alpine A525 car, but remained confident in the progress he’s making.

“Every lap I’m more comfortable and getting closer to Pierre [Gasly], who’s the team’s yardstick,” he said. “I’m constantly looking at the data to see how he’s driving it. It’s a tricky car to drive, very different to the Williams car. Every driver that’s switched teams has complained a bit, so it’s my turn to do it. But I’m sure in the next races I’ll be better. We have to take it easy and progress.”

The 21-year-old was coming off a disappointing Saturday. Attempting to improve his time in Q1, the first qualifying session, he lost control after riding the curbs on the exit of turn 1 too aggressively and spun into the barriers.

As the grid lined up to start Sunday’s race, the Argentine took a moment to thank his team for fixing up the car ahead of the race.”Thank you guys, thank you so much for all the hard work last night and to the morning, for getting the car back together. Thank you,” he said.

Colapinto’s only timed lap of 1:16.256 proved enough to move into Q2, meaning he was set to start at 15th, the last qualified spot in that session. However, he was later demoted to 16th due to entering the pit lane before the resumption of the qualifying session, which had been interrupted minutes earlier by an accident.

F1 turns now to the famous Monaco Grand Prix, one of the biggest dates in the calendar. The race weekend opens up on Friday May 23, with Free Practice 1 starting at 8:30 a.m. Qualifying will take place on May 24 at 11 a.m., with the race scheduled for Sunday at 10 a.m. All times are in Argentina Time.