Alpine experienced a day of contrasts during the first free practice sessions for the Las Vegas Formula 1 Grand Prix, with Pierre Gasly showing consistent pace while Franco Colapinto faced more difficulties throughout the day.
Gasly finished both sessions in 12th place and highlighted that the car responded well from the first minutes on the track: “It was an encouraging day for us today. I felt good in the car from the start of practice, which is important, especially on a difficult track like this, where you need to have confidence in the car to take enough risks,” he said.
The Frenchman emphasized that the balance was reasonable throughout the day, although he still sees areas for improvement. He also commented on the more turbulent TL2, marked by red flags: “We couldn’t fully maximize our program.”
Despite this, he remains optimistic for the qualifying session: “I have a good history here, so I want to keep the statistics high. The goal is to be in the fight for the third quarter and we’ll give it our best,” he concluded.
On the other side of the garage, Colapinto ended the day in 20th place in TL1 and 16th in TL2, reporting a complicated start: “It was a very complicated day, where I never really felt comfortable with the car,” he said.
The Argentine explained that the first session was poor in terms of balance and grip, unable to find a good feeling with the equipment. The TL2 brought some improvement, but the problems continued: “The second session was better and we showed signs of evolution, but we felt that some of the same problems continued as well.” Like Gasly, he mentioned the influence of the red flags at the end, which limited the work with soft tires.
Colapinto acknowledges that the difficulty is not unprecedented: “Just like in Brazil, I’m having trouble getting a good feeling in the car.” He emphasizes that the team needs to understand why certain problems intensify in certain conditions and recalls that the team usually evolves over the course of the weekend. “We’ll work hard tonight and see if we can take some steps for tomorrow, when it really matters,” he added.
