Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying delayed after Franco Colapinto’s nasty crash leaves track covered in debris

The start of Q3 for the Las Vegas Grand Prix was delayed after a heavy crash from Williams Racing driver Franco Colapinto.

Towards the end of the Q2 session, Colapinto was making his way through turn 16 on the Las Vegas street circuit when he lost control of his car in the left side wall.

Colapinto’s car then skidded across the track colliding with the opposite wall before continuing to slide down the circuit before coming to a complete stop.

The 21-year-old driver was able to get out of the car completely fine – telling his garage ‘I’m ok’.

The wreck left plenty of debris all over the track as carbon fiber and one of Colapinto’s tires were left behind him.

Additionally, the impact of the wreck forced marshals to examine the barriers for any damage that might have needed repairing. 

Williams will now face the task of fixing his car for the second time in as many race weeks

Over 25 minutes after Colapinto’s wreck, the track was finally cleared for racing and Q3 went underway. 

Williams will now have to almost completely re-build the chassis of Colapinto’s car – and will do so as the grand prix is less than 24 hours away.

This marks the second race week in a row that Williams would have to re-build the young Argentine’s car after a wreck in qualifying.

Two weeks ago in Sao Paulo, under slippery qualifying conditions, Colapinto lost control coming out of the Senna ‘S’s’ at Interlagos – spinning across the track and crashing into a barrier.

A day later, in the grand prix itself, Colapinto lost control in the rain and wrecked into the barriers again.

Currently in the standings, Colapinto stands at P19 on five points – ahead of Liam Lawson, Zhou Guanyu, the man he replaced – Logan Sargeant – and Valtteri Bottas.