Alpine's double points finish at Formula 1's Mexican Grand Prix was wiped out after both Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly received penalties for yellow flag infringements, costing the team all eight points it had initially secured.
Colapinto and Gasly crossed the line eighth and 10th and were promoted to seventh and ninth when Oscar Piastri received a 10-second post-race time penalty for clashing with Arvid Lindblad at Turn 1. But the stewards ruled that both Alpine drivers failed to follow yellow flag rules after Piastri's incident with Lindblad.
Colapinto was given a 10-second time penalty for passing a single waved yellow flag without slowing enough. Alpine presented telemetry and photographic evidence claiming it showed he had complied with regulations requiring drivers to reduce speed and be prepared to change direction, but the stewards said the evidence failed to satisfy them that he had slowed sufficiently. He was cleared of speeding through a double waved yellow flag in the previous sector because of sufficient doubt that he had enough warning to comply, but the 10-second penalty dropped him to 15th.
Gasly received a harsher penalty: a stop-and-go penalty converted into a 30-second time drop, leaving him 17th as the last classified driver. Alpine and Gasly argued that he had made a significant reduction in speed in the double waved yellow sector, but the stewards examined telemetry and that of other cars passing through the sector and concluded the small reduction was not sufficient. Because the infringement was under double waved yellow flags, Gasly also received two penalty points.
Both drivers apologised in Alpine's post-race press release. Gasly said he was sorry to the team for the yellow flag infringement and called it his error, adding that there were things for the team to look at and that it had not been a great day for him. Colapinto said he was sorry to everyone at the team for what happened under the yellow flag and described it as his mistake in the car.
The penalties moved Liam Lawson, who started from the pitlane, into seventh place, giving Racing Bulls six more points and putting it 35 points clear of Alpine in their battle for fifth in the constructors' championship. The ruling also promoted Gabriel Bortoleto and Isack Hadjar into the points in eighth and ninth, and meant Ryo Hirakawa scored a point on his surprise debut for Haas in 10th place.
Sources: The Race.