Franco Colapinto plays the troublemaker at Alpine

Behind the spotlight on the 5^e consecutive podium – and 5^e victory of the season – of Max Verstappen and the return of Charles Leclerc In the top 3, another story played out at the back of the grid of the United States Grand Prix.

Au 54^e lap of the race, while he occupies the 18th^e On the spot, Franco Colapinto receives an instruction from Stuart Barlow, his race engineer. Both cars are doing well here, we need to hold our positions, please. " The Argentinian driver, then stuck behind Pierre Gasly in cruel lack of rhythm, immediately replies: " But it is slow ».

Franco Colapinto, the bad student

Under pressure from Gabriel Bortoleto 19^e, Colapinto finally decides to overtake the Frenchman in the first corner of the following lap. « It was the right thing to do, defended the native of Pilar (Argentina) after the race. It was my turn to lose position several times before. I was going much faster, Pierre had slightly older tires, and he was about a second slower. »

On softer tyres that were fresher than those of his French teammate, Franco Colapinto actually displayed a better pace. Behind him, Gabriel Bortoleto was threatening, less than a second behind. car No. 43. Gabriel Bortoleto was attacking me a lot, and overtaking Pierre Gasly was also a way to defend myself. If I didn't overtake him, he would probably overtake us both, justifies the former Spanish F4 champion. We were fighting for 17th and 18th places, no point arguing about that."

Seventeenth at the checkered flag, Franco Colapinto looked disillusioned. "It was a difficult day in a complicated weekend for the whole team. For me, it wasn't easy and I struggled with the car."

Steven Nielsen, Team Manager Alpine, spoke after the race about the internal disagreement. "We ordered the pilots to maintain their positions, explains the manager of the French team in a press release. Any pit wall order is final and we are disappointed that this was not the case. This is a matter we will address and deal with internally."

The Briton does not rule out a potential sanction. “Pilots must listen to instructions, he insists. Especially since we are not playing for a world championship or even points in this case."

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A Sunday to forget for Gasly

After finishing 10th in the Sprint, Pierre Gasly finished Sunday's race in a sad last place among the classifieds. “It was a disappointing afternoon and we basically lacked performance, deplores the Norman. Today we were simply too slow. The first stint went well. We then put on the soft tyres, but our stop was slow, and everything changed as I spent a lot of time in traffic until the finish. We have a lot of things to analyze, because it is very difficult for us to be competitive on Sunday, but we will work on that. The Tricolore did not wish to comment on the episode with his teammate.

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