Franco Colapinto historic: the Argentine driver finished eighth in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix

This way, Colapinto sumo four points for Williams and set a new record for national motorsport, since 1982 in South Africa, the country did not score any points in the competition.

It’s that the Pilarense who runs with Williams He became the first Argentine to score points in the Formula 1 In 42 years since he did it Carlos Reutemann.

In the meantimeMonegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and Briton George Russell (Mercedes) finished second and third, respectively.

When it seemed that Colapinto He was going to end up empty-handed due to Williams’ strategy that made him stop in the first laps, the Argentine was able to overtake the German Nico Hulkenberg to climb to tenth place and in the last laps he climbed another two places due to the unusual crash between the Mexican Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) and the Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr (Ferrari), who were fighting for the last step of the podium.

Colapintowho started in eighth position, was the first to go to the pits, on the tenth lap, which caused him to fall to fifteenth position.

After all his rivals made their respective stops he was ninth, but was quickly overtaken by his teammate, the Thai Alexander Albon, and the German Nico Hulkenberg (Haas).

Added to this was the fact that he was constantly attacked by the British multi-champion. Lewis Hamilton, although it resisted with great hierarchy.

This is how on lap 50 he passed to Hulkenberg A few seconds later the collision occurred between Perez and Sainz.

Franco Colapinto’s joy after finishing the race

Exhausted by the enormous task undertaken, the Argentine spoke to the press after the race and expressed his feelings: “Very happy with eighth place. It’s a dream come true. This weekend was incredible,” he initially said.

He added: “The team did a great job. They are giving me a lot of confidence. Having two cars in the top eight was crazy.”

Regarding the development of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Colapinto He admitted: “We suffered the first few laps until we stopped. I had no experience with the hard ones, I didn’t know how far I could push.”

And he clarified about the final development and that eighth place achieved: “It was crazy. Having him (Lewis Hamilton) behind me for almost the entire race was already an achievement.”