Franco Colapinto has been handed a 10 second time penalty after the Barcelona Grand Prix, dropping the Alpine driver from eighth to tenth place in the final classification and costing him 3 crucial championship points.
The stewards issued the penalty after determining that Colapinto failed to adequately slow for a single yellow flag during the race. While the stewards acknowledged that the Argentine did slightly reduce speed before entering the yellow flag zone, they determined that the reduction was not discernible enough in the relevant sector to comply with the regulations. Given that Colapinto did react to the flag, the penalty was set at the lower end of the applicable scale. He also receives one penalty point on his superlicence, bringing his total to two for the 12 month period.
The incident occurred at 15:38 during the race, and the decision was confirmed at 19:04 following a hearing in which both Colapinto and an Alpine team representative were summoned by the stewards.
For Colapinto, the timing is painful. Three points lost in a single post-race decision is significant for a midfield driver where every single point matters in the constructors battle. Alpine had what looked like a strong double points finish with Gasly in seventh and Colapinto in eighth, only to see one of those results trimmed at the end of the day.
