Franco Colapinto was annoyed with himself despite being the only Williams driver to reach the final round of qualifying for the sprint race.
Alexander Albon spun in SQ1 and failed to progress beyond the first round. Colapinto also had a spin, but did so after reaching the final 10. However he was frustrated as he believes he had a chance to qualify higher than 10th.
“I’m just a bit upset because I was in a good place and we were looking like we could beat the cars or at least fight with the cars that are around and I did a mistake in my lap in turn one,” he told the official F1 channel.
“Then I just had a slide in [turn] one, I had a slide in seven. I tried to recover the time but it just didn’t work.” He eventually spun off at turn 12.
“So it was not a clean lap in Q2 and I just feel bad for that because it felt like we should have been in the top eight, I think, as we finished in SQ2,” he said. “So it’s just a bit frustrating.”
However he was encouraged by Williams’ performance on a weekend when they haven’t brought any upgrades.
“There are not many points [in the sprint race], but we are still close to the points. And I think in only an hour of track time, to learn the track and a bit the car, there was good progress and good improvement but just feel like there was more there.”
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Colapinto revealed he also made an error with a set-up change on his car before his final run.
“I was pushing more,” he explained. “The F1 [car] has a lot of downforce, they say the quicker you go the more grip you have so I tried that technique and it worked.
“But it was a good quali, I’m just pissed off with myself because I had a change on the aero that I shouldn’t have done and it was the same I did in Baku and it didn’t work in Baku and it looks like I didn’t learn from that and I asked for it again for SQ3 and it didn’t work again.
“So it’s something I need to learn, to control a bit more and to understand where is the limit of the tyres. We’ll get better.”
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2024 United States Grand Prix
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