Franco Colapinto on the podium at Van Amersfoort Racing's home track

ROFGO Junior Franco Colapinto celebrated on the podium last weekend at the Dutch GP circuit. Colapinto returned to the sand dunes of Zandvoort after his podium finish last year in FRECA.

The weekend got off to a strong start, finishing in the top 5 in the practice session on Van Amersfoort Racing’s first visit to the circuit. Even though Franco had a great pace in Qualifying, he couldn’t maximize it due to a red flag hindering his flying lap. He still managed to set the fifth fastest lap, securing a P8 start for the Sprint Race and P5 on the grid in the Feature Race.

Saturday’s race was one to forget, after an opening lap contact dropped him down to P13, and the damage he picked up hindered his chances to fight for points, but he still delivered a brave and well-executed move on Smolyar in the final lap to finish in P12 after 21 laps.

Starting from fifth on the grid on Sunday, the Visit Argentina-supported driver had his eyes set on a podium finish in front of the Dutch GP crowds. He made a great getaway, immediately attacking Stanek and with a wonderful move, he dove down the inside of the Trident driver in Turn 3 and took fourth.

After a brief safety car period, Franco nailed the restart, and taking advantage of Crawford’s mistake, he grabbed P3 and started to reel in Martins. Unfortunately, the numerous safety car phases prevented him from making a move on the Frenchman but he still steered the VAR machine to a home race podium finish, claiming his best feature race result so far and making his fourth visit to the FIA F3 rostrum.

Franco Colapinto:

“Podium at last! We didn’t have the fastest car this weekend but worked really hard to improve and we nailed it for Sunday’s race. The first few laps were quite aggressive, and I could just take some of the opportunities and move to P3. I am super happy with the podium, especially at the team’s home track.” 

The 2022 FIA F3 season concludes this weekend in Monza.