Alpine driver in tears after "wasted" Monza opportunity

Franco Colapinto was left in tears after an error on the Monza restart saw him lose a potential podium opportunity at the Italian Grand Prix.

Alpine had sensational pace in Formula 1 qualifying and in the early stages of the race, with Pierre Gasly taking a shock first pole position, while Colapinto also featured in the top 10. 

Deploying all of his electrical energy moments before the red flags were shown for Charles Leclerc's heavy crash, the Argentinian found himself in fourth place, and climbed higher as the race got back underway, passing Max Verstappen for third. 

However, when attempting to keep his elevated position, Colapinto lost the rear of his Alpine at the first Lesmo, and slid helplessly into the gravel. Although able to recover to the track, he was now down in 16th place.

"It could have been a great race and [I made] a major mistake, so I wasted a very important opportunity for the team and for myself," he told ESPN Argentina. 

"So, I'm a bit sad, but I need to learn from this and I keep on pushing."

By the chequered flag, Colapinto had managed to recover back to ninth place, and collected two vital points for his team. After everything, this was only two places behind his team-mate, who had endured no such drama.

Facing the written media, Colapinto added: "I'm just frustrated. I did some good stuff, and I just lost the car completely in Turn 5, 6. 

"I was doing some good things, between P3 together, and you feel so strong as well, and fighting with the top teams. You get very motivated very quickly, and something like that, it throws it all away.

"I don't really understand yet what happened. I think the car was very aggressive, and I went very flat over the curb, and that didn't help."

Referencing his pass on Verstappen at the restart, Colapinto said: "It was okay. 

"When you're on the car, you don't really feel the difference. It's one after another. Yeah, it's cool to be fighting with the top cars and top teams, we cannot believe it. That's why to just miss an opportunity like this, it's very bad."