Franco Colapinto brought out the red flag as he crashed in the first free practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with the Argentinian’s second Formula 1 race weekend for Williams beginning in inauspicious circumstances.
Having replaced Logan Sargeant ahead of the Italian Grand Prix a fortnight ago, Colapinto impressed on his debut, finishing 12th after qualifying down in 18th place at Monza.
He was promoted into a race seat after Williams team boss James Vowles made the call to drop Sargeant, who himself had suffered a number of crashes throughout the season.
The last of those came in FP3 for the Dutch Grand Prix last month, with Colapinto now mirroring such form by putting his car into the barriers having missed the apex and sliding into the wall at Turn 4.
“I’m okay,” he said over the team radio, before adding: “Sorry for that, guys.”
His Williams went sideways into the way and seemingly caused a lot of damage, with potential gearbox issues, too.
The shunt went against what Colapinto wanted to achieve in Baku, having said on Thursday he was planning to go step by step to get up to speed.
“The goal is to build up slowly. I think it's very similar to Monza. Monza, I didn't know the car. Now I don't know the track,” he said.
“So it's still one thing to learn only. Three free practice sessions, it's more than enough I think for us to learn the track. I haven't been on many street tracks, but I hope to have done enough prep in the simulator and to have worked really hard with the team to done enough to be on the pace quick.
“So I know it's going to be tough. But I'm doing a lot of work and a lot of prep to be ready for it. Of course, I think we have a really good car to be able to score points. And I'm going to try to do the best I can. I think go step by step, session by session, and then see where we end up.”
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc having also hit the wall in an eventful FP1, with both accidents bringing out the red flag – following an initial early red flag to recover debris on track.
Race winner in Monza, Leclerc damaged the front right of his Ferrari having carried too much speed and finding the barrier at Turn 15.
