Argentine race driver Franco Colapinto completed his best outing as an Alpine F1 driver, finishing 11th at the Dutch Formula 1 Grand Prix. It’s his best result so far, finishing just one shy of the point-awarding positions.

Starting 16th after narrowly missing out on a Q2 berth in Saturday’s qualifying, Colapinto had a solid getaway and took advantage of a poor launch by Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto to make a position. Going with the faster, less durable soft tires, he had a solid pace and also overtook teammate Pierre Gasly to get to 14th.

The threat of rain hung over the drivers for most of the race. It made things especially difficult for drivers on the soft tires, who had to extend their running past the tires’ recommended life in a bid not to make two stops if rain did effectively fall. Alpine requested that Colapinto swap positions with Gasly, waiting to confirm whether wet conditions would become an issue, and stopped him for hard tires on lap 20.

It proved an ill-timed choice, as only three laps later Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton hit a wall, bringing out the safety car and making pitstops much more convenient

Colapinto held a solid pace throughout the race, and took advantage of a second safety car on lap 55 to enter for a set of soft tires. He once again roared through the field, overtaking Bortoleto and pushing Haas’ Esteban Ocon. 

However, he got stuck behind a slower Pierre Gasly on lap 65. The order to swap positions came with two laps to the end, allowing Colapinto to chase Ocon. It proved too late, as the Argentine driver ran out of laps despite taking over one and a half second from the Haas driver in the last lap. He finished 12th, but jumped to 11th because Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli had racked up 15 seconds in penalties.

“It was a long and tricky race, I think we took our opportunities but we should’ve worked on better teamwork,” said a visibly frustrated Colapinto after the race. “It would’ve been very easy to help me get a championship point. I think we missed out because it would’ve been very simple, there wasn’t a lot to it.”

Despite the narrow miss, the Argentine driver admitted he was feeling “more consistent and comfortable” with the Alpine car, wrapping up a positive weekend.

The performance comes at the best possible time for Colapinto, after he faced some harsh comments from team boss Flavio Briatore ahead of the race. The 75-year-old Italian openly questioned whether the Argentine racer was ready for F1 and admitted to feeling that it may have been a mistake to make him a main driver, leaving big questions over his future with the team.

Colapinto will return to action next weekend, as F1 moves to the Italian Grand Prix in Monza on September 7.