Why was Colapinto penalized after the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix?

Originally published by F1Technical
View original →
15 Jun 2026, 09:26
Why was Colapinto penalized after the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix?
By on

Franco Colapinto’s strong Barcelona afternoon ended in frustration after the Alpine driver was demoted from eighth to tenth place following a post‑race investigation into a yellow‑flag infringement.

The Argentine had crossed the line just behind teammate Pierre Gasly, securing what looked like a valuable P7–P8 finish for Alpine in their push to lead the midfield.

But the stewards quickly noted Colapinto for failing to slow adequately for a single‑waved yellow flag. After reviewing positioning and marshalling system data, video, telemetry, team radio and in‑car footage, they concluded that the Alpine driver had not reduced speed sufficiently in the relevant sector.

Their verdict was clear: “The Stewards determine that, albeit 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.”

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.”

The sanction — a 10‑second time penalty and one penalty point — dropped Colapinto behind both Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson and Sauber’s Arvid Lindblad, who inherited P8 and P9 respectively.

The revised result means Colapinto leaves Round 7 with a single point, his fourth top‑10 finish of the season. While the penalty cost Alpine a larger haul, the team still scored with both cars and continues to show signs of upward momentum in the midfield battle hot on the heels of Gasly's podium finish in Monaco.



Read the original article at F1Technical →

Cookie settings