Alpine struggled to find its pace in Austria, while Colapinto finished 15th; Norris claimed victory with McLaren in another Formula 1 Grand Prix.

The Austrian Grand Prix delivered an interesting race, filled with emotions and battles, but it was not a good Sunday for Alpine, the team of Argentinian Franco Colapinto, whose car lacked pace, suffered a collision that hurt them, and finished 15th. British driver Lando Norris, who had dominated throughout the weekend, took victory in Spielberg, adding more spice to the fight for the championship lead, which is held by his McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri.

Alpine has been showing problems with race pace, appearing as one of the weaker cars of the season, and this Sunday in Styria was no exception. Despite Flavio Briatore’s insistence on his drivers – on Saturday, after qualifying, he said the car was capable of getting both drivers into Q3 – the A525 has not proven to be up to those expectations from the team’s head. Even before the action started this Sunday, Colapinto himself predicted a reality that would be seen on the Austrian circuit: that the car performed better in qualifying than in the race.

The A525 couldn’t even take advantage of a Grand Prix where opportunities for points opened up for the Anglo-French team, following the retirements of Carlos Sainz (before the race started), Kimi Antonelli, Max Verstappen (on the first lap), and Alexander Albon (on lap 15) that occurred throughout the competition. Pierre Gasly, Colapinto’s teammate, started tenth – in points territory – while Colapinto had a good qualifying session that allowed him to start from the seventh row. The Frenchman strongly criticized Alpine’s performance before halfway through the race. “I don’t know how to keep the car on the track,” protested the talented French driver, who finished 13th after being overtaken by several drivers.

The same happened with Colapinto: four of the cars that started behind him finished the race ahead of him, including two of them scoring points; they were Esteban Ocon, with HAAS, and Nico Hulkenberg, with Sauber, who started the action from the last position on the grid and crossed the finish line in ninth place. Just like in the last race, both the American team’s cars and the Swiss ones were noticeably superior to the A525 on the Red Bull Ring.

Between the two Alpine drivers, however, the Argentinian had a slightly better pace. This was despite having an incident that hindered him on a day already difficult for the drivers dressed in pink. With 31 laps in, Yuki Tsunoda attempted to overtake Colapinto with an irregular maneuver that caused his Red Bull to collide with car number 43. Although the Japanese driver was quickly penalized with 10 seconds, the Argentinian suffered in time and performance from that hit. “It was a shame because I broke the front wing and the floor,” the Argentinian lamented later about the consequences of the Japanese’s dangerous attack.

“Today was a hot and frustrating afternoon,” Colapinto stated after the action in Austria. “As the race progressed, we had problems with the car and balance. We lacked pace and suffered more than usual with the tires due to high degradation. I had the incident with Tsunoda in turn four, which delayed us a little and cost us time. Yuki came to apologize afterward, but it’s a shame, as the car felt different after the contact, possibly because of some damage. We have little time until Silverstone, where we will return to the factory in Enstone and work hard to come back stronger for the team’s home race next weekend.”

Briatore, for his part, expressed: “Frankly, this level of performance is increasingly concerning. While yesterday the car was fast and should have been well positioned in Q3 with both cars, Sundays are a very different story for us.”

Those who showed no signs of frustration were the McLaren team, which once again imposed a 1-2 in Austria (Charles Leclerc, with Ferrari, completed the podium), although they perhaps struggled with a tight battle between Norris and Piastri that nearly became dangerous. The Australian driver also had a situation that almost took him out of the race when he had to block after Colapinto, who was behind, did not see him and forced him off into the grass. For that maneuver, the Argentinian was penalized with five seconds (which did not change his final position) and with a point added to his Super License, which now totals three points.