Colapinto crashes during Azerbaijan FP1 GP

Franco Colapinto brought out the red flag when he crashed during the first free practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Argentine’s second Formula 1 race weekend for Williams got off to a bad start.

Colapinto replaced Logan Sargeant ahead of the Italian Grand Prix two weeks ago and impressed on his debut by finishing 12th after qualifying in 18th place at Monza.

He was promoted to race driver after Williams team boss James Vowles decided to drop Sargeant, who had himself crashed several times during the season.

The last of which was in FP3 at the Dutch Grand Prix last month. Colapinto now does the same by driving his car into the barrier after missing the apex and sliding into the wall of Turn 4.

“I’m fine,” he said over the team radio, before adding: “Sorry about that, guys.”

His Williams ended up sideways in the road, causing a lot of damage. The gearbox was also affected.

The shunt goes against what Colapinto wanted to achieve in Baku. On Thursday he had already said that he wanted to proceed step by step to get up to speed.

Franco Colapinto, Williams Racing

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

“The goal is to build up slowly. I think it’s very similar to Monza. Monza, I didn’t know the car. Now I don’t know the circuit,” he said.

“So it’s still just one thing to learn. Three free practice sessions, that’s more than enough I think to get to know the circuit. I haven’t been to many street circuits, but I hope to have done enough preparation in the simulator and worked really hard with the team to do enough to get up to speed quickly.

“So I know it’s going to be tough. But I’m doing a lot of work and a lot of preparation to be ready. Of course I think we have a very good car to score points. And I’m going to try to do it as well as possible. I think we have to go step by step, session by session, and see where we end up.”

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc also hit the wall in an eventful first free practice. Both accidents resulted in a red flag, after a red flag had to be waved to clear debris from the track.

Leclerc, who won the race at Monza, damaged the right front of his Ferrari by driving too fast and hitting the guardrail at Turn 15.