REPORT: No points from our Mexico City Sunday

Williams Racing ended the 2024 Mexico City GP with Franco Colapinto crossing the line in P12, while Alex Albon's race was over on the first lap.

The stewards hit Franco with a post-race 10-second penalty, but his advantage over Estaban Ocon behind meant there was no change to his classification.

A rollercoaster weekend for Alex started with an FP1 crash before hitting a high point with another Q3 appearance and ended with broken suspension.

Our No23 FW46 was sandwiched between Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly on the long run down to Turn 1, and Alex's front-left wheel hit the VCARB to send both he and Tsunoda out of the race.

Franco rose to P14 and kept close to Sergio Perez ahead during the resulting Safety Car period.

We had split the strategies of the two drivers, with Alex starting on Pirelli's medium tyre while Franco began with the hards.

Even without the grip of those around him, Franco applied pressure to the Aston Martin cars ahead of him once Perez had passed them.

Fernando Alonso slowed FC43 down over the subsequent laps before pulling in to retire, allowing Lance Stroll to enjoy a 4-second gap.

A busy opening stint had Franco fighting with the out-of-position Oscar Piastri, losing out to the McLaren in some fine wheel-to-wheel fights through the opening two chicanes.

Stroll pitting as Franco got within DRS range negated the loss to Piastri, and Franco could use the clean air to manage his tyres and brake temperatures.

Liam Lawson became the focus of Franco's race, and the strategy team chose to pit opposite to the VCARB to try and help find a way past.

Franco finally pitted on Lap 47 and used his fresh mediums to close an 11-second gap to Lawson.

A Lap 66 pass around the outside of Turn 1 had Franco through, but contact between the pair left Franco with a 10-second penalty and Lawson needing repairs.

Franco ended the race in P12, 2.4 seconds behind Stroll's rear wing, before applying his penalty in a hard-fought race up the order.

James Vowles shared his thoughts with Franco on the cooldown lap, saying, "Well done, Franco.

"It's really impressive to see how you overtake cars, how you fight through traffic, how you keep the tyres under control.

"Bravo. Really well done."

Franco shared his thoughts after the chequered flag, when he said, "We had a good race today but, of course, starting from P16 with a McLaren and a Red Bull behind me, it was always going to be tricky.

"It was difficult after yesterday’s Qualifying as we suffered a lot with the rear tyres, however we did a good job in maximising what we had and managing with the tools available to try to fix the balance.

"Overall, it was a job well done but not quite enough for points. We’ll turn our focus to Brazil where we’ll aim to fight for points as a team.

For Alex, his race only lasted one straight, but he remained pragmatic.

"It was a tricky one today," said Albono, before continuing on:

"We didn’t have the best launch, and everyone was fighting for the same position into Turn 1, so it’s unfortunate that we got squeezed with nowhere to go, but that’s racing.

"It’s been a tough few weeks with multiple incidents and some bad timing, so we need to find a way to bounce back.

"Looking at the positives, we’ve learned a lot this weekend and finally started to understand and correct some of the balance issues we’ve been struggling with over the last few races.

"I also think we could’ve scored points today, so hopefully, we can turn things around and focus on Brazil, the last race of the triple-header."

Sven Smeets, the Williams Racing Sporting Director, shared his post-race thoughts and said, "Similar to last week, we decided to split the cars on different start tyres with Alex starting on the Medium tyre and Franco on the Hard.

Unfortunately, Alex’s race was over before it began after being squeezed under braking into Turn 1 by Gasly and Tsunoda, meaning immediate retirement.

"There was nothing Alex could’ve done to avoid the accident and it’s disappointing for him after being in a great position to fight for points today.

"For Franco, he had a good race but unfortunately couldn’t climb into the points and had to settle for P12, after some big fights on track with other cars.

"A difficult and frustrating afternoon for the team, especially knowing that the car had the pace to fight for points.

"We will now regroup and put our full focus into Brazil which will be the second Sprint Race of this triple-header."