Franco Colapinto loses P8 after Barcelona penalty

Franco Colapinto was demoted from eighth to 10th in the Barcelona Grand Prix after FIA stewards handed the Alpine driver a post-race 10-second penalty and one super licence point for not reducing his speed enough under a single yellow flag.

The penalty cut into what Alpine had initially taken as a valuable double-points finish after a difficult weekend for pace. Colapinto had crossed the line directly behind team-mate Pierre Gasly, with Gasly seventh and Colapinto eighth on the road.

Stewards investigated Colapinto’s response after Fernando Alonso stopped his Aston Martin near Turn 9, triggering the yellow-flag zone before the situation escalated to a virtual safety car. After reviewing positioning and marshalling system data, video, timing, telemetry, team radio and in-car footage, they concluded that Car 43 had reacted, but not enough in the relevant sector.

“The stewards determine that the driver of Car 43 slightly reduced speed before entering the single yellow flag zone, but did not discernibly reduce speed in the relevant yellow flag sector,” the stewards said in their ruling. They added: “The stewards acknowledge that the driver reacted to the yellow flag but do not consider the reaction to be sufficient to comply with the regulations. Therefore, a penalty on the lower end of the applicable scale of penalties is imposed.”

That decision dropped Colapinto behind both Racing Bulls drivers, promoting Liam Lawson to eighth and Arvid Lindblad to ninth. Colapinto also moved to two penalty points on his FIA Super Licence over the last 12 months.

Before the ruling, Colapinto had described the race as “a very good race, very solid.” The Alpine driver said the team had shown “that we were really strong and that we turned around a tricky result,” after a race day that had looked much stronger than the team’s earlier struggles suggested.

Instead of leaving Barcelona with the full reward of that recovery, Alpine’s result was reduced after the chequered flag, with Colapinto’s points haul cut back by the stewards’ decision.