Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto both had promising weekends in Las Vegas but saw their races effectively end on the opening lap after separate incidents left their Alpines badly damaged.
Gasly, who had shown strong pace and started in the top 10, was collected at the first corner. Gabriel Bortoleto hit Lance Stroll, Stroll then ran into Gasly, spinning him and destroying the rear diffuser. Bortoleto was later given a five-place grid penalty for next weekend’s Qatar race for causing the collision. Stroll and Bortoleto retired on the spot, while Gasly, despite the damage, was able to continue and finished 13th — two places ahead of team mate Colapinto.
“I just got absolutely crashed into and then spun around and lost about 10 points of downforce after 100 metres and the race was over. I’m trying to laugh about it, but it definitely doesn’t make me laugh!” Gasly said. “I think it’s more frustration, and I’m just sad for the [team] because I felt good in the car the entire weekend, in the dry, in the wet. We did a good Quali and I was looking forward to the race and I don’t fully understand what Gabi [Bortoleto] tried to do there, but unfortunately, he crashed into Stroll, who touched me and spun me and broke the back of my diffuser, so a very long afternoon.”
Gasly noted the car had the pace to challenge for a top-10 finish and highlighted past qualifying form in Vegas — third last year and fourth the year before — but lamented that strong qualifying has not yet translated into race results at the venue. “We could have had the pace to fight for the top 10. We could have been able to be right there or right behind, but we’ve lost quite a huge amount of downforce with that [hit]. The diffuser was gone… Definitely, it feels a bit annoying. It’s been three years where I’ve had amazing Quali and then, in the race, it’s never translated into a good race. I was really hoping that this year could be different, but that’s not the case.”
Colapinto suffered his own contact at the start when Alexander Albon made contact with him. The Argentine continued despite rear-end and diffuser damage but struggled with balance and rear grip all race. “I just had damage from the start and after that, it was pretty bad. I had no grip, no rear, I was sliding all over the place, and I don’t know if it was all down to damage or not, but it felt very bad, the balance, and just no grip on the rear,” he said. “Disappointing. A disappointing race, and just very slow.”
Both drivers were left to rue what might have been after encouraging pace through the weekend, with the early contact turning promising results into a long afternoon for Alpine.