Franco Colapinto He had been making a great qualifying at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. He had advanced to Q2, improving his teammate’s record Alex Albon. However, when he was looking to improve his record at the end of the second round of qualifying, he touched the wall and caused severe damage to his car. It is unknown whether the Argentine will receive medical approval and whether the mechanics will be able to repair the FW46 so that it can be present in the race this Sunday, November 24. (it will start at 3 in the morning, Argentina time).
The 21-year-old driver had managed to overcome the initial cut, which eliminated Lance Stroll from Aston Martin (20°), Valtteri Bottas the Sauber (19°), Albon from Williams (18th), Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin (17°) y Czech Pérez from Red Bull (16th). The Argentine was 14th when Q2 had already consumed his time, so he had the opportunity to advance to Q3 if he improved his time.
Colapinto had been fighting millisecond by millisecond to overcome the cut, but in one of the last corners he made a bad calculation and crashed his left tire into the walls. The impact ejected the car, which ended up hitting the barriers again. The images made clear the great deterioration.
The session was stopped and forced the start of Q3 to be extended. Although the Williams rookie was left with the 14th best timethe big question is whether he will be present on Sunday. The Argentine got out of the car on his own, showing his anger at the mistake made, and had to be taken to the medical center as per the usual protocol. Hours later, the team questioned its presence in the race through a statement.
*This is how they took Colapinto’s car after the accident
“We are completely devastated, but grateful that Franco is okay. Devastating for the team after a difficult qualifying, but things looked positive after FP3. Our team will have a long night, but we will do everything we can to come back stronger tomorrow“, the Grove-based team had reported seconds after the crash on their social networks..
It will also be necessary to see if the mechanics will be able to repair their car in time taking into account the serious problems that the Grove-based team had in the previous two races. James Vowlesteam leader, had warned during the weeks prior to the Las Vegas Grand Prix that it was unknown whether they would arrive in time to repair Albon and Colapinto’s cars after the events at the San Pablo GP. The lack of spare parts and problems with the salary limit put the team in trouble, which still managed to put its two cars on the track this weekend on the 22nd round of the Máxima. “There is no team on the grid that can cope with five serious accidents in two race weekends. Simply the number of spare parts we carry is not enough to withstand that amount of wear,” he had said.
It is the fourth accident for the Argentine runner since he landed in the Máxima. Colapinto had had his first crash in FP1 of the Baku street circuit, although he did not register serious damage and that weekend he closed a great presentation. The worst thing for him came last day of F1 in the rain of the San Pablo GP in Interlagos: he got lost during qualifying, but the Williams mechanics were in time to repair it. However, under torrential rain, Franco lost control again during the race in a safety car entry and destroyed his car, leading to abandonment.
* The reaction of the mechanics after the Colapinto accident
To this we must add the millionaire expense that Williams also had to make for the three crashes that Albon had had between Mexico (two) and the classification of the San Pablo Grand Prix, to such an extent that the Thai did not manage to compete in the main race of the Sunday that weekend. According to a fan’s estimate, Grove’s team He had spent $9,466,750 throughout the entire season before Las Vegasensuring that the damage to the cars during the race in Brazilian territory It meant a total of 4.8 million dollars in car parts repairs.
*This is how they took Colapinto to medical attention
THE CLASSIFICATION SUMMARY
