Colapinto credits Gasly's Monza pole lessons after reaching Q3 and finishing seventh in Madrid

Franco Colapinto finished seventh at the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid after reaching Q3, crediting a detailed study of team-mate Pierre Gasly’s qualifying performance at Monza as a key factor in his improved showing.

The result came just a week after Colapinto had been left searching for answers at Monza, where Gasly produced a surprise pole position while the Argentine qualified eighth. The gap between them had widened as qualifying progressed — just 0.050 seconds apart in Q1, three tenths in Q2, and four tenths by Q3.

“Pierre was very quick throughout qualifying. In Q1 I was very close, and I think as the sessions went on, he kept improving more than I did. I have a lot to work on on my side to understand that and learn from how much he was improving with every attempt while I was falling a little bit behind,” Colapinto said after Monza.

In the days that followed, Colapinto studied the data to identify where Gasly had found additional performance as the session developed. The work appeared to pay off in Madrid, where he was consistently faster than his team-mate through qualifying and reached Q3 despite having to abort his first Q2 run after being caught out at the fast La Monumental corner.

“Qualifying was one of the best qualifying sessions I’ve done, with very, very perfect laps and putting the car into Q3,” Colapinto said after Sunday’s race. “Today we stayed ahead in the race and scored a lot of points. So I’m very happy. Once again, it’s extremely positive and I’m very happy with the pace and the results.”

When asked specifically what he had taken from Gasly’s Monza performance, Colapinto pointed to both driving technique and energy management across the different stages of qualifying.

“I think a bit of everything,” he said. “He is more experienced and the steps he was making in everything, both in driving and energy management, from one run to another, from Q1 to Q2 to Q3, were very clear. I learned from that.”

Colapinto acknowledged that applying those lessons had been central to his Madrid breakthrough. “I think after Monza I learned a lot from Pierre’s qualifying and I tried to take a step here. I did it and I maximised everything again,” he said.