F1: Franco Colapint, forward, Alpine, back in Icola

The Argentine approached his partner Pierre Gasly, but the team was further from the tip when they accelerated all. Lando Norris was the fastest.

Motoring has a rule that is almost as old as the world itself: the first rival is the teammate himself. In that fight inside doors, it matters little if the car of the team is the best and faster or the worst of all. To the next door you have to win the first law. But here, far from Martín Fierro, there is no brotherhood. Beyond the good existing vibes or, in some cases, even friendship, when my friend is lowered, there is no other than to win. And Franco Colapinto, in his first race with Alpine in F1, was getting closer and more to Pierre Gasly with the passage of training batches.

Now, Collapint’s advance with the passing of the batches is very clear. The numbers do not lie. But the car went back with respect to Friday. The third place of Gasly in the second training session caught the attention and seemed that those of Estone could excite themselves with getting into some battle almost unknown to them this year, except in Baréin. However, in the third session, a reality bath fell to Alpine, because the Frenchman was 15th and the Argentine, 18th and far.

On Friday at noon Italian, when the first batch of essays of the seventh date of the World Cup was played, the Argentine was 677 thousandths of French. In the afternoon, in the second session, the gap was shrinking 474 thousandths. And the third practice arrived on Saturday at noon and the Argentine went to just 220 thousandths. The difference is very small.

And it is not a track condition that has complicated, because, in fact, Lando Norris was the fastest and clearly lowered the time that his partner Oscar Piestri had achieved on Friday: 1M14S897 against 1M15S293. The Australian also improved, like Max Verstappen with his Red Bull. And the signatures could continue. Instead, Alpine not only went back in position, also in time. The best of Friday was 1M15S569 and this Saturday nailed 1M15S990. And Colapinto fell from 1m16s044 to 1m16s210. The fall of Buenos Aires is less pronounced than that of his partner, but remains a call for attention for the performance of A525.