Following a difficult event at Silverstone Alex was able to rebound and collect 16 points in Barcelona, including a second place podium in race 2.
The event started well with Alex second fastest in free practice on Friday morning. He took his speed into qualifying where for an extended period he was on provisional pole with everyone set to go out one more time on new tyres.
Everyone had one shot at a fast lap. Alex put in a personal best time on the first sector and was on track to qualify in the top three when he came across a driver going very slowly in turn 7. Alex had to abort his lap and could not improve which saw his position tumble down to 9th, his starting grid for race 1. The driver blocking was penalised three grid spots but given he qualified behind Alex it didn’t help in any way.
In the first race Alex got a good start and with strong pace finished 8th on a track where passing is not easy when in a train of cars with DRS available. Finishing 8th put Alex on grid 3 for the reverse grid second event on Sunday.
What an incredible race it turned out to be! Alex got a great start and swept around the outside of corner 1 to take the lead but had his rear wheel clipped by Nannini in second place. This forced Alex to lift from the throttle to collect the slide which in turn lost him momentum and he watched Piastri pass on the straight to corner 4.
At corner 5 Nannini threw his car up the inside of Alex who decided to yield rather than head to the scene of an accident. Alex soon passed Nannini again but with Piastri already over two seconds up the road he knew that with a similar pace it was not possible to catch him. However a safety car brought the field back together with only a few laps to go. Alex and Piastri both restarted with good pace and nearly identical times which didn’t allow for a passing opportunity. Regardless a great result for Alex and his highest placing in F3 to date.
