Franco Colapinto learns fate after 'asleep' accusation in Max Verstappen incident

Franco Colapinto has received a warning from the Japanese Grand Prix stewards following an incident with Max Verstappen in second practice at Suzuka.

Twenty minutes into the hour-long session, Colapinto was weaving along the straight in his Alpine on the approach to the famous 130R. On a fast lap, Verstappen arrived swiftly behind the Argentine driver and was forced to brake sharply

Colapinto was cited by the stewards for driving erratically, and later for 'allegedly impeding'. Sky Sports F1 analyst Karun Chandhok described Colapinto as "asleep" for not looking in his mirrors, and the incident "unacceptable".

A stewards' statement read: "Car 43 was weaving across the track, warming tyres on the straight between turns 14 and 15 when car 3 approached at high speed.

"Team radio confirmed that the driver of car 43 had received progressive warnings from the team that car 3 was behind and closing.

"When car 3 arrived, car 43 stopped weaving but remained on the racing line and then accelerated but the closing speed of the two cars was such that the driver of car 3 had to abandon his push lap.

"The driver of car 43 candidly acknowledged that he had impeded Car 3. He said that he had misjudged the closing speed and accelerated to attempt to prevent the impeding but had insufficient energy to do so.

"The driver of car 3 said that he expected car 43 to move to the left and when he saw that wasn’t happening, he abandoned his lap.

"The stewards determined that the driver of car 43 unnecessarily impeded car 3 and impose the usual penalty for such an infringement in a free practice session of a warning."