Franco Colapinto hit with F1 Imola GP grid penalty

Franco Colapinto has been slapped with a grid penalty – despite crashing out of qualifying for the F1 Imola Grand Prix.

The Argentine was penalised for breaking protocol after Yuki Tsunoda’s high-speed crash.

Colapinto, who was making his debut for Alpine after replacing the luckless Jack Doohan, with the Aussie failing to score a single point in the opening six races.

However, when the red flag was deployed following Tsunoda’s crash, Colapinto made a mistake by entering the fast lane of the pitlane before the qualifying restart time was confirmed, earning him a one-place grid penalty.

The FIA stewards report said: “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, 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 pitlane.”

Colapinto then suffered a crash himself during qualifying and later apologised to his Alpine team as he was pressing the car to the limit and slid off track.

He told Sky Sports F1: “My first lap was quite a bit under the limit, but was still quite competitive and there was a lot more to come.

Franco Colapinto, Alpine (Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images via Getty Images)

“So, it's just a pity – a very costly mistake. Of course, sorry to the team that they have been doing a great job on making me a bit more comfortable with the car.

“It's just tough when it's like this – first race – but I'm sure we'll come back stronger. The team has a bit of work now overnight. I'm just very sorry for that, but I'm sure we'll give them a nice reward tomorrow.”

Colapinto, who is set to start in 16th place, went to the medical centre for checks before being given the all-clear. He said his error disguised the progress the team has actually made.

He added: “Of course it's not what you want, especially in your first quali. But I think the team has been very supportive.

“I enjoyed working with them and we have been pushing in the same direction. I'm learning [about] the car on every lap I'm doing.

“I still have a lot to learn. I'm sure doing the race tomorrow is going to help me a lot to get a bit more used to the degradation, get a bit more used to the car, to the engine and to many other things that are different to what I was used to.

“So, yeah, it looks really bad. But it's not as bad as it looks in terms of how I've been adapting to the car. I'm quite happy and much more comfortable in the seat than what I was yesterday. So, that's how I feel.”

Additional reporting by Frederik Hackbarth