Colapinto Defends Decision to Overtake Teammate

[Saba Sports News] According to RN365, Franco Colapinto believes that the threat from Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto behind him justified his decision to ignore the Alpine team order and overtake teammate Pierre Gasly towards the end of the F1 United States Grand Prix. In the final stages of the race, Colapinto received an instruction to hold position behind Gasly. Despite both cars being in fuel-saving mode and no full Safety Car deployment during the 56-lap race, the Argentine driver made a forceful pass on his teammate at Turn 1. Colapinto ultimately finished ahead of Bortoleto, while Gasly dropped to 19th place. Post-race, Team Principal Steve Nelson issued a statement saying: “Any instruction issued from the pit wall is final. Today we are disappointed that this was not followed, so we will review and handle this internally.” Reflecting on the race, Colapinto felt that, considering he felt he was faster, the “best option” was for him to be ahead of Gasly. Colapinto stated: “In the final stint, I was quite a bit faster than Pierre, and Bortoleto was pushing very hard behind, much faster than us. So I thought the best situation was for me to be ahead and try not to hold up both cars.”