"A great result and a fantastic reward", claims Colapinto as he scores career‑best result in Montreal

Alpine enjoyed their most successful weekend of the 2026 season at the Canadian Grand Prix, with Franco Colapinto finishing a career‑best sixth and Pierre Gasly climbing from 14th on the grid to eighth.

The double‑points finish strengthened the team’s hold on fifth in the Constructors’ Championship and showcased clear progress after a difficult start to the year.

Colapinto headed the midfield after Arvid Lindblad failed to start and held sixth place throughout the race. The Argentine had one dramatic moment when he clipped the wall exiting the pits and damaged his front wing, but the impact did not appear to slow him down as he maintained strong pace to the finish.

Gasly, meanwhile, recovered superbly from a disappointing qualifying session. He fought through the field, battled Liam Lawson in the closing laps, and narrowly missed out on seventh place by fractions after an entertaining multi‑lap duel.

Gasly was pleased with the team’s overall performance but admitted he is still struggling with the car. He said: “Overall, it's a really good team result and strong points for the Championship. On my side, it's been a bit of a damage limitation result where we've recovered from a difficult weekend up to this stage to finish P8 and inside the points.”

He acknowledged ongoing issues with the A526: “In general, though, I have struggled with the car again and, as a team, we need to see why that is and aim to fix a few areas. There is a lot of work ahead of us to get the car into a good place again and that is our target between now and Monaco.”

Gasly also described the challenge of the opening laps: “In terms of today's race, we had a tough start on the Mediums which were quite cold and low grip to begin with but in the end we made some positions back and then into the fight against Liam [Lawson] at the end. It was tough to find anywhere to overtake him and we just could not get by, so we had to settle for P8.”

Looking ahead, he added: “I am looking forward to Monaco now. It is my favourite place of the year so hopefully we can fix some of these limitations and go there with more confidence and more performance.”

Colapinto was thrilled with both his own performance and the team’s progress. He said:

“From where we started the weekend to having a double points finish for the team, is a great result and a fantastic reward for everyone at the team who has been working so hard. I'm very proud of the work we've collectively been doing and it's a great team result today.”

He celebrated his best F1 finish: “It's also my best result in Formula One, which makes me very happy and builds on the performance we showed in Miami.”

Colapinto acknowledged that Alpine benefitted from others’ misfortune but maximised their own opportunities: “We know we benefitted from others' misfortune, and it's never a nice feeling to benefit from their issues, but we maximised everything we could and brought the car home.”

He also described his near‑miss with the wall: “It was extremely low grip out there and slippery, especially at the start in the opening laps on a harder compound tyre to those around us.

"I also had a scary moment exiting the pits after my stop, where I hit a wet patch, then went on the white line and drifted towards the wall. Thankfully I hit the wall side on and got away with a small amount of damage, which didn't require repairs or impact the performance.”

Looking ahead, he added: “As we know, there's still more we need to do to be more competitive, bring more performance to the car and get closer to those ahead of us on merit.”

Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore praised the team’s execution and the drivers’ performances. He said:

“Congratulations to the entire team on this result where we have scored 12 points. We executed a good strategy, the drivers did an excellent job on track and we now extend our advantage in P5 in the Constructors' Championship.”

He highlighted the team’s turnaround after a difficult Friday: “We had a difficult day on Friday, but the team has worked hard to understand a few things on the car and now we come away with a positive team result.”

Briatore also praised Colapinto’s breakthrough: “I am happy for Franco for his best ever finish in Formula One in P6, so well done to him for his effort. On Pierre's side, it is a good recovery from P14 on the grid.”

Looking ahead, he stressed the need for continued development: “There is a lot of hard work ahead if we are to improve our competitiveness. The drivers still share similar feedback on the car and there is much more performance for us to find going into Monaco next time.”