Stewards heavily criticised for handing out penalty points to three drivers after Verstappen's crash

Lawson was barely affected: he had a big gap to Nico Hulkenberg in seventh place and stayed seventh even after his ten-second penalty for speeding under yellow flags—for Max Verstappen’s crash—was applied. Teammate Lindblad was also in trouble. By his own account, he would have finished in the points without the drive-through penalty he received. Lindblad also got a penalty point on his license.

Colapinto initially received two penalty points for overtaking Yuki Tsunoda under yellow flags at Turn 14 on the opening lap. That brought Colapinto to a total of three penalty points within a twelve-month period. Like Lindblad, the Argentinian also received a drive-through penalty. Of the three drivers, the Alpine driver was therefore the most critical of the way the stewards handled it.

According to him, it was clear that it was a tricky situation for the drivers, who had to think about their own safety and the debris on the track. "The drive-through ruined our race," Colapinto told, among others, GPblog. "I had a very good start and was running in the points. But yeah, it’s just difficult. I think it’s very hard to react in such conditions when you’re fighting on the first lap, making an overtake, everything is wet and damp..."

In the Argentinian’s view, the stewards were not exactly timely with the yellow flag either. "The yellow flag came very, very late, at the moment I had almost completed my overtake," he said. "It would clearly have been much more dangerous to slam on the brakes and suddenly slow down in the middle of the straight, on the banking, in the wet, while I had nearly completed the overtake. I kind of feel that, even though the rules are on paper, they should be much more flexible."

Colapinto had hoped for some understanding from the stewards, but was disappointed. "They should also have the option to assess what is safe. It’s actually more unsafe if someone is driving thirty kilometers per hour slower. If someone is thirty kilometers per hour slower, that person gets overtaken. I saw a lot of people there. It’s very hard to react to that. I mean, in this case they’ve actually been extremely strict. Of course it’s their job, but it’s also their job to be a bit flexible and understand the situation."

Lindblad is slightly less critical of the stewards, but agrees with Colapinto that the penalty was a bit too harsh. "I don’t know. I think if you look at reality and watch my onboard, you can ask yourself: what was actually so wrong?" Lindblad says cautiously. He doesn’t want to go into it too much. "Yeah, I don’t know. Today I felt more like they wanted to set a precedent than that they really looked at the infringement and matched an appropriate penalty to it. So yeah, I don’t really know. I don’t want to say too much about it."