Colapinto Frustrated After Disappointing Q1 Exit in Mexico

Alex Albon celebrates unexpected Q3 result, while Franco Colapinto laments missed opportunity following early elimination at Mexican Grand Prix.

Alex Albon delivered an impressive performance in qualifying at the Mexican Grand Prix. The Williams F1 driver secured a ninth-place finish, admitting that he hadn’t expected to reach Q3 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

“Q3 was a pleasant surprise, but I think we could have aimed for seventh place,” Albon remarked. “I caught a bit of dirty air from the Mercedes cars in the final sector, which might have put us ahead of Kevin [Magnussen] and Pierre [Gasly].”

“But we’re still in a strong position for the race, and I’m pleased to have secured ninth place for the team and the mechanics who worked so hard to repair the car.”

“Obviously, I haven’t had the chance to do a long run, so we won’t know much until we get out on track, but the car feels good and the used tyres we ran on performed well, which is a positive sign for the race.”

“We’ve got many of our direct competitors around us tomorrow, and a few cars out of position, but overtaking here isn’t always easy, so we’ll do our best to move forward.”

Franco Colapinto is frustrated by his Q1 elimination: “The qualifying session was very challenging. Unfortunately, it seems we went in the wrong direction with the setup changes we made after FP3. I struggled to maintain rhythm through the corners and suffered from oversteer.”

“We’ll have to try to recover tomorrow, but it will be tough with the car’s current balance. We’re looking to understand the issues and see what we can adjust with the tools at our disposal. I hope we can make progress during the race.”