Lance Stroll snaps back at F1 rival with brutal put-down after public criticism | F1 | Sport
Lance Stroll has clapped back at Franco Colapinto, telling the Alpine racer to ‘focus on scoring a point’ after he called the Aston Martin man out for an incident with Gabriel Bortoleto at the Brazilian Grand Prix two weeks ago.
Stroll and Bortoleto were battling on the opening lap in Interlagos when they tangled on the approach to Turn Nine. The contact sent the Sauber driver into the outside wall, bringing his race to a premature end for the second time in as many days.
After the session, Colapinto, who, like Bortoleto, had a considerable cohort of fans at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, called Stroll out publicly. “Stroll is always taking people out,” he complained. “He’s not looking in the mirrors. He put Gabriel in the wall; it’s what he does every time.”
Bortoleto was more forgiving, despite suffering heartbreak less than 24 hours after his sprint race ended in a terrifying crash at Turn One. “Lance, I was just side by side with him out of Nine,” the Brazilian 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.”
Ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Stroll was asked about Colapinto’s comments. “I heard about it, yeah,” he said. “I don’t know, maybe he’s frustrated and angry with life. I don’t know how many points he has in the championship. How many?”
When told that Colapinto had none to his name, Stroll replied brutally: “Franco should probably focus on his own things and try and score some points sometime this year.”
Stroll also revealed that he had a conversation with Bortoleto after the chequered flag in Sao Paulo to clear the air. “It was racing,” he stated. “I didn’t get a penalty in Brazil for anything. I spoke with Gabriel afterwards. You know, 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.”
Colapinto took the opportunity to apologise to Stroll ahead of the race in Las Vegas, which marks the start of a season-ending triple-header. “Yeah, I think it was in the heat of the moment after the race,” he explained.
“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.”
