F1 star set for internal investigation after breaking team orders at United States Grand Prix

An internal investigation has been launched after an F1 star broke team orders at the United States Grand Prix.

Alpine stars Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly battled for P17 during the closing stages of the US GP, with the Argentine driver beginning to put pressure on Gasly.

However, Colapinto was told by the team to hold position despite the pair being nowhere near a points-paying position.

Colapinto, who is currently fighting for his place in F1 next season and is yet to score a single point, pulled off the overtake on Gasly anyway to finish ahead of his team-mate for the sixth time this season.

Speaking to The Race after the US GP, Colapinto’s boss was not happy with his defiance and confirmed the matter will be reviewed internally.

Alpine managing director Steve Nielsen said: “Any instruction made by the pit wall is final and today we are disappointed that this didn't happen so it's something we will review and deal with internally.”

Should Colapinto have defied team orders?

Speaking after the race in Austin, Colapinto defended his overtake on Gasly and named the threat of losing position to Gabriel Bortoleto from behind, which would have dropped Alpine down to last.

"We had quite a bit more pace than Pierre in the last stint," Colapinto explained. And had Bortoleto really close behind, attacking very hard. He was much quicker than us and it was holding me up with how slow Pierre was going.

"I think it was the best for the situation to have me in front."

When asked if he needed to prove himself amid uncertainty over his Alpine seat, Colapinto responded: "I am motivated. We know that the car is tough to drive and it's very difficult at the moment.

"We swapped positions a lot of times this year and they also let us race in other tracks.

"Here for this event, I was attacked very heavily by Bortoleto. It was probably the best to have me in front, otherwise we were going to get both overtaken."

Gasly refused to elaborate on the team orders fiasco when he was questioned, confirming the matter would be analysed internally and that he did not want to 'release the frustration' publicly.

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