The team radio message of Franco Colapinto reacting to Max Verstappen’s 20-second penalty at the Mexico City Grand Prix has emerged.
On Sunday, Verstappen went wheel to wheel with McLaren star Lando Norris yet again as the pair’s battle for the Formula 1 world title continued.
The Dutchman ended up being handed a 20-second penalty after being adjudged to have forced Norris off the track at Turn four and Turn eight.
As a result, Verstappen finished in sixth place and saw his lead at the top of the standings cut to 47 points with four races left to go.
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A few days after the race, a previously unheard team radio message emerged.
Williams driver Colapinto was being told of Verstappen’s penalties, the Argentine replied: “20s penalty?! My god, what has he done?”
Reacting on social media, one fan said: “He’s a comedian I can’t.”
Another tweeted: “Every driver had the same reaction. Ridiculous penalty.”
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A third fan added: “Franco is peak cinema.”
Verstappen said after the race: “At the end of the day, if you agree with it or not, it doesn’t matter because the penalties are given.
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“That was also honestly not my biggest problem of the race, my biggest problem was that we just had no pace. Just struggling a lot on the tyres, couldn’t really attack, and I couldn’t follow Ferrari and McLaren.”
He added: “I mean I knew that was going to be tough. It never felt great so, yeah, I knew that it was going to be very difficult to keep them behind.”
Norris said: “It’s clear that it doesn’t matter if he wins or second, his only job is to beat me in the race, and he’ll sacrifice himself to do that, like he did today.
“But I want to have good battles with him. I want to have those tough battles, like I’ve seen him have plenty of times, but fair ones.”
Topics: Formula 1, Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, Fan Reactions
Marcus Chan