Overview
- On Friday, Colapinto’s Alpine suffered an electrical/fuel‑system fault that left him unable to record competitive laps and prompted the radio message “my accelerator is not working.”
- Alpine mechanics worked at the circuit to diagnose and repair the fault, replacing components at the track so the car could return to action for the Sprint qualifying session.
- After the repairs Colapinto qualified 13th for the Sprint, produced a steady race and climbed to ninth over 23 laps, finishing just outside the points.
- Later on Saturday Colapinto reached Q3 and will start the main Grand Prix from 10th, while teammate Pierre Gasly failed to progress through the same qualifying cuts and was well down the order.
- The weekend highlighted how Sprint formats raise the cost of lost practice time because teams have only one free session, placing extra pressure on mechanics and amplifying the effect of Alpine’s new upgrades against a weekend dominated by Mercedes’ pace.