Stroll hits back with ‘score a point’ jab after Colapinto criticism

Lance Stroll says Franco Colapinto should focus on scoring his first point of the season rather than having a go at him for his incident with Gabriel Bortoleto that put the local favourite out of the Brazilian Grand Prix.

After all, Stroll and Bortoleto have already spoken about it and there are no hard feelings.

Stroll v Bortoleto, and Colapinto’s reaction

⦁ Colapinto up in arms for Bortoleto despite ‘fair’ verdict
⦁ Lance Stroll claps back at point-less Colapinto
⦁ Alpine driver attempts to diffuse the war-of-words

Stroll was involved in a first-lap incident with Bortoleto where he appeared to squeeze the Sauber driver, leading to minor wheel-to-wheel contact. But it was enough to push Bortoleto onto the grass on the outside of Turn 9 where he lost control and spun into the wall.

“Stroll pushed me out, he just turned as if I wasn’t there,” Bortoleto complained to Sauber.

The Brazilian later labelled it a racing incident.

“Lance, I was just side by side with him out of Nine,” he explained. “And then, there’s no pointing fingers here, just lap one. I was on the outside. He opened a little bit more than what there was of space there. He clipped my front tyre and I ended up in the wall.

“It’s a racing incident. He didn’t do it on purpose, I’m sure. Every time I fight with him, he’s fair with me.”

But while Bortoleto wasn’t annoyed with Stroll, their fellow racer Colapinto had a go at the Aston Martin driver as he felt Stroll’s actions in Brazil were similar to Mexico, where Colapinto says the Canadian “pushed me onto the grass”.

Speaking after Brazil, the Alpine driver said: “Stroll is always taking people out, he’s not looking in the mirrors. He put Gabriel in the wall, it’s what he does every time.”

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Lance Stroll hits back with ‘score a point’ advice

Stroll was quizzed on Colapinto’s complaints when he sat down with the media in the build-up to the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

He reckons instead of criticising his rivals, the 22-year-old should focus his efforts on scoring a point for Alpine.

“I heard about it, yeah,” he said. “I don’t know, maybe he’s frustrated and angry with life. I don’t how many points he has in the championship. How many?”

Told Colapinto had “zero” points, Stroll quipped: “Franco should probably focus on his own things and try and score some points sometime this year.”

The driver revealed that he had spoken with Colapinto after the Brazilian Grand Prix and there were no hard feelings, apparently, unlike Colapinto’s towards him.

“It was racing, I didn’t get a penalty in Brazil for anything,” Stroll said. “I spoke with Gabriel afterward, know you, it was racing.

“Franco should focus on scoring a point.

“I’m not surprised, maybe like I said, he’s frustrated with his season, not where he wants to be and needs to speak about other things that are irrelevant.

“My advice to him is that he tries to focus on his own thing and maybe score a point this year.”

Franco Colapinto tries to calm the feud with ‘heat of the moment’ claim

Colapinto, meanwhile, tried to calm the war-of-words when he had his turn the media and called his jab at Stroll a heat-of-the-moment situation.

Having been running behind Stroll and Colapinto in Brazil, he had the perfect view of the crash and felt sorry for Colapinto that he was forced to retire in front of his home fans.

“Yeah, I think it was in the heat of the moment after the race,” he said.

“So the incident with Gabi from… I was just behind, and I just saw the moment. But, of course, sorry if it affected him.

“Of course, it was in the heat after the race. And yeah, hopefully it’s all good between us.

“But we’ve been spending a lot of time together on track in the races. We’ve been very close to each other and we had some close fights.”

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