Lance Stroll fires back at Franco Colapinto with pointed "focus on scoring a point" comment

Lance Stroll blasted Alpine’s Franco Colapinto after the Argentine criticised the Canadian driver after the Brazilian Grand Prix. Stroll argued that Colapinto should focus on securing a point this season rather than on what he was doing.

Colapinto had called Stroll out for his defence against Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto in Brazil before the latter suffered a crash. “Stroll is just always taking people out, just not looking in the mirrors, leaving no track, and he put Gabi in the wall,” Colapinto stated. “It’s what he does every time.”

“I heard about it. I don’t know. Maybe he’s frustrated and angry with life,” Stroll said when asked about Colapinto’s comments ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend.

“I don’t know how many points he has in the championship. I can’t tell you.”

He added: “He has zero points. I don’t know. He should probably focus on his own things and try to score some points this year.”

The Aston Martin driver defended his position and clarified that he and Bortoleto had spoken after the race and both were satisfied that it was not Stroll’s fault.

“I’m racing. I didn’t get a penalty in Brazil or anything. I spoke with Gabriel after the race. Probably Franco should focus on scoring a point or something this year.”

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing

Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images

Bortoleto did not blame Stroll for the crash. “No, we spoke. I was racing,” Stroll confirmed.

“Maybe he’s frustrated with his season and not where he wants to be. He 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 clarified his position during the press conference ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, explaining that his comments had come in the “heat of the moment after the race”.

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

Photos from Las Vegas GP – Wednesday