REPORT: A point claimed in Austin!

A P10 finish from Franco Colapinto gave the team another point to add to our tally after an excellent drive at the United States Grand Prix.

Alex Albon made contact with Esteban Ocon into the the first corner of the race, and although the team replaced his front wing and made further efforts to repair the car, lingering damage hampered his ability to fight upwards in a similar fashion.

Franco's result marked a second points finish in just his fourth Grand Prix start, as he continued a mightily impressive start to life in F1.

The Argentinian began on the hard tyres, running an offset strategy to his teammate who started a place higher than him, in P14.

It was a tough opening lap for the two drivers, as Franco lost a couple of places and Alex was relegated to the back after that contact with Ocon.

An early Safety Car – deployed to recover Lewis Hamilton's stricken Mercedes on the exit of Turn 19 – granted the team a cheap pit stop to replace Alex's front wing, but the lasting damage severely restricted his ability to fight.

For Franco, however, some excellent tyre management allowed him to get to Lap 40 before pitting – and when he emerged in P12, he showed excellent composure to defend against the fast-approaching Kevin Magnussen.

His pace on the new set of mediums was excellent, and he pulled away from Magnussen before catching, and passing, Pierre Gasly. A spin from Yuki Tsunoda granted him passage into the top ten – and there was no looking back from there.

Colapinto even held the fastest lap for several laps in the closing stages, before a wily move from an Alpine back-marker stole away his chance of the bonus point. Ocon pitted for softs in the closing stages and set a faster time to ensure Franco was not able to double his spoils on this occasion.

It was yet another mightily impressive drive from the young Argentinian, and hopes are high for that form to be maintained as we journey south of the border for the Mexican Grand Prix next weekend.

As expected, Franco was delighted with the result, saying, "after a tough Saturday we managed to bounce back in the race.

"We showed great strength as a team to turn it around today. RB, Haas and Alpine have all been strong this weekend so it was going to be difficult to get in the points. I knew we had good race pace and when I found my rhythm in the clean air we really pushed on.

"I’ve learned a lot from my first Sprint weekend which can only benefit me going forward. I still need to keep learning to help the team progress in the right direction. Hopefully we can build on this in the next two races of the triple header."

Alex meanwhile, reflected on a trickier afternoon; "it’s been a tough weekend. I feel like I got a little bit pinched on Turn 1 and once I had damage, that was it.

"It was a race in that I thought we were going to retire the car but were trying to play the long game and likely help out Franco with his race. The car was okay, but I feel like I’ve been struggling all weekend and we just haven’t been able to find the right spot with the Soft tyres.

"It’s a disappointing result but it’s only the beginning of the triple header, so hopefully we can make some changes and come back stronger in Mexico."

Sporting Director Sven Smeets pointed out that, "the track temperatures were higher today than the rest of the week, so tyre management was always going to be important. We decided to split the cars on to different start tyres to increase our chances to get into the points in the race.

"Alex started on the Medium but was unfortunately hit in Turn 1 from behind and could not avoid hitting Ocon. We were able to pit him under the Safety Car to change the front wing, but permanent floor damage meant his race was over before it had really started.

"Franco started on the Hard tyre and lost some positions after the start. When the first two-stoppers pitted and with how the race unravelled, we decided to try and make the one stop work. A great first long stint kept him in the running for points and when Magnussen stopped for a second time, we decided to pit Franco for his one and only stop. He just came out in front and from then onwards he showed great pace till the end securing P10 and a valuable point.

"We still need to understand our poor performance from yesterday but with the good race pace today, we are looking forward to next week’s race in Mexico."