FIA announce F1 penalty verdict after embarrassing incident at Imola Grand Prix

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Imola Grand Prix

FIA announce penalty verdict after embarrassing incident at Imola Grand Prix

Saturday's qualifying saw one F1 team make a serious blunder

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Saturday 17 May 2025 19:56 Updated: 00:54

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The FIA have announced an official decision from the stewards following an incident during qualifying for the Imola Grand Prix.

Newly promoted Formula 1 star Franco Colapinto was prematurely released into the fast lane of the pit lane during Saturday's session, with the Alpine crew back in the garage taking to team radio immediately to apologise for the miscommunication.

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The Argentine racer mistook his team's orders resulting in him being released before a restart time had officially been confirmed following a huge crash from Yuki Tsunoda in Q1.

The stewards heard from Colapinto and an Alpine representative and found him in breach of Article 12.2.1 i) of the International Sporting Code and non-compliance with the race director’s event note.

The embarrassing error appeared to be the result of a misunderstanding from Colapinto, but the stewards felt a sporting penalty was still necessary to impose ahead of Sunday's main event.

Colapinto hit with grid penalty at Imola Grand Prix

Having heard from Colapinto and his team, an official FIA announcement read: "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 re-start time was officially confirmed in breach of the race director’s event notes.

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

"The team argued that there was no sporting advantage gained in this case as there was sufficient time remaining for other teams to perform their run plans as this was the start of the session."

Both Colapinto and his representative reportedly apologised for the inadvertent breach but the statement concluded: "The stewards considered that the breach was inadvertent but it did require a sporting penalty to be imposed. However as the breach was unintentional and this did not result in any sporting advantage, we decided to impose a one-position grid penalty.

"A similar breach in different circumstances, could entail a more severe sporting penalty, in future."

The 21-year-old has had a debut weekend to forget with Alpine after the team opted to make a brutal driver swap just six races into the 2025 campaign, promoting Colapinto to a full-time driver role in place of an underperforming Jack Doohan.

Shortly after the breach from Alpine the Argentine star also triggered a red flag after crashing on the exit of Tamburello, ruling him out of the chance to deliver a more competitive lap time.

Having crashed out of the session in P15, Colapinto will now start Sunday's race in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy from 16th thanks to the penalty.

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Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Alpine Yuki Tsunoda Franco Colapinto Imola Grand Prix