Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly lost their respective P8 and P10 places at the Mexico Grand Prix, with the Alpine duo penalized after the race for separate yellow flag infractions.
The Frenchman had outqualified his teammate at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, but it was Colapinto who got the best start and improved from 11th to 7th place in the opening laps.
Although they handled the 71-lap affair well to secure a hard-fought double of points for Alpine, they were later summoned before the stewards for failing to slow down under yellow flags – Colapinto doing so in a single yellow sector and Gasly in a double.
Their subsequent penalties – 10 seconds for the Argentine driver and a stop-and-go for Gasly – dropped them in the final standings and promoted Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar and Haas newcomer Ryo Hirakawa to P9 and P10.
The stewards’ decision document regarding Colapinto, which added that he would also receive a penalty point, said: “The stewards heard from the driver of car 43 (Colapinto), the team representative and reviewed the positioning/classification system data, video, timing, telemetry, team radio and on-board video evidence.
“The driver and team presented telemetry and photographic evidence claiming that it demonstrated that the driver had complied with the regulations which state that the driver must reduce speed and be prepared to change direction.
“A detailed review of the telemetry and on-board camera failed to convince the stewards that the driver had sufficiently reduced his speed in this yellow sector alone.
“With respect to the previous double-yellow flag sector, the stewards determined that there was sufficient doubt that the driver had sufficient warning to comply with the requirements, and therefore did not determine that there had been an infraction in this sector.”
Meanwhile, Gasly’s lack of speed reduction was deemed a more serious error, earning him two penalty points.
The document regarding it explained: “The stewards heard from the driver of car 10 (Gasly), the team representative and reviewed the positioning/classification system data, video, timing, telemetry and on-board video evidence.
“The driver and the team representative claimed that the driver had significantly reduced his speed in the double yellow flag sector, but a detailed examination of the telemetry and that of other cars passing in this sector led the stewards to conclude that the small reduction observed was not sufficient to meet the requirements of the regulations.
Following Oscar Piastri’s penalty for causing a collision, the final scorers at the Mexico Grand Prix were Liam Lawson (P7), Gabriel Bortoleto (P8), Hadjar (P9) and Hirakawa (P10).
Gn sports
