Franco Colapinto Receives Grid Drop for Pit Lane Infringement

Franco Colapinto handed a one-place grid drop for a pit lane breach ahead of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.

Alpine's rookie driver Franco Colapinto received a one-place grid penalty for a pit lane infringement ahead of Sunday's Emilia-Romagna Grand Park. This penalty comes after Colapinto's challenging qualifying session.

Colapinto handed one-place grid penalty following Qualifying rule breach#F1 #ImolaGP https://t.co/yYxjOcaBUI

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The 21-year-old Argentine driver, who replaced Australian driver Jack Doohan at the Renault-owned team, crashed at the end of the first phase of qualifying. Despite the incident, he was ranked 15th on the timesheets.

The driver was summoned by the stewards after the session for entering the fast lane in the pit lane prematurely, before a restart time had been confirmed following a red flag period.

“The team representative stated that he gave the instruction for the car to creep out but not be fully released. The driver misunderstood the instruction and entered the fast lane before the restart time was officially confirmed,” they said in a statement.

“Once this was done, it was too late to reverse course and the team instructed the driver to proceed down the pit lane.”

Alpine argued that no sporting advantage was gained from the infraction, as it occurred early in the first phase of qualifying.