Franco Colapinto storms to ninth at British GP as Alpine scores double points

Franco Colapinto capped a stunning recovery to finish ninth at the 2026 British Grand Prix on 18 June, securing Alpine’s first double-points finish of the weekend. The Argentine fought back from eleventh on the grid to edge Pierre Gasly by 3.445 seconds, with Charles Leclerc taking the chequered flag at Silverstone.

What happened in the race?

Colapinto’s race started on the back foot. A spin in Q1 dropped him to the back of the grid, while Gasly served a penalty that pushed him to fifteenth. But once the lights went out, both drivers clawed their way forward. Colapinto sliced through the field on a single-stint strategy, using Alpine’s race-day fuel load to his advantage. Gasly, meanwhile, held station behind him to round out the top ten.

How did Friday shape up?

The weekend began in chaos. Colapinto topped FP1 in 1’30.966 on mediums, a time he never threatened to improve despite running the whole session without soft tyres. Gasly, though, struggled: twenty-first in 1’33.019, nearly 3.8 seconds off Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari pace. The Frenchman called the A526’s behaviour “unpredictable,” far from the feel he wanted through Silverstone’s high-speed sequences.

Sprint Qualifying told a different story. Gasly stormed into eleventh in 1’29.482, just eight or nine tenths shy of sprint Q3. Colapinto, however, slipped to fourteenth in 1’29.983 after setup changes worsened the car’s rear stability. The Argentine never found the right window through Maggotts, Becketts and Chapel, leaving him marooned in the midfield.

Why it matters for Franco Colapinto

This result marks Alpine’s fifth double-points finish of 2026, a rare bright spot in a season dogged by midfield scraps. Colapinto’s ninth-place haul vaulted Alpine to fifth in the constructors’ championship, though the squad remains locked in a knife-fight with Racing Bulls, Audi, Williams and Haas. Silverstone also confirmed Racing Bulls as the midfield’s benchmark-a marker Alpine must erase to score points on a regular basis.

The weekend underlined the A526’s core issue: a lack of rear stability in fast corners. No new parts arrived at Silverstone; the team stayed in a back-to-back setup from Austria, where an aerodynamic tweak had briefly shifted the car’s balance forward. The focus stayed on data analysis and setup tweaks, but the deficit in high-speed confidence persisted.

What comes next?

Attention now turns to Saturday’s sprint and Sunday’s qualifying. Alpine will test overnight changes under race conditions, hoping to iron out the A526’s jitters. Colapinto and Gasly must carry Friday’s momentum into the next session-or risk slipping back into the midfield pack. The fight for points in 2026’s tight constructors’ championship is far from over.