Franco Colapinto attacks Lance Stroll for ‘always taking people out’

Franco Colapinto has launched a scathing attack on F1 rival Lance Stroll following the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Aston Martin’s Stroll was involved in an early collision that ended home hero Gabriel Bortoleto’s race when the Sauber driver was punted into the wall at Bico de Pato as he tried to make up ground on the opening lap.

Colapinto watched the incident unfold from behind and accused Stroll of “always taking people out” and “not looking” in his mirrors.

"Stroll is just always taking people out, just not looking in the mirrors, leaving no track, and he put Gabi in the wall. It’s what he does every time,” the Alpine driver said.

Bortoleto did not point the finger at Stroll and believes it was simply a racing incident.

“It was a good start, I overtook two cars, it was Lewis [Hamilton] and Colapinto in the outside of six,” he explained. “It was a nice move.

"And then Lance, I was just side by side with him out of nine. There's no pointing fingers here. I think, you know, just lap one and I was in 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.

"I think it's a racing incident. Obviously, if he had given a bit more space, I would have done the corner, and probably overtaken him because he had worse tyres than I had because I was on softs.

"But again, 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. So it's just racing.”

‘Painful’ home race for Bortoleto

It compounded a miserable first home race for Bortoleto, who walked away unscathed from a terrifying crash during Saturday’s sprint race.

"Tough weekend,” Bortoleo conceded. “Weekend to forget and move on. I just take the positives that my whole country was here supporting me, the Brazilians.

"And I'm just sad because I have not been able to race today and show a bit of the pace that I believe we had. It comes from me, from my incident in the sprint race that caused me to not do quali. So I'm going to be the first one harsh on myself here, you know.

"I believe it's a consequence of things that happened earlier in the weekend. But anyway, I mean, obviously it's more painful because it's my home race, but it's just another weekend. We had so many good ones, we had bad ones as well.

"And there's nothing I can do about it. I just need to move on, analyse things and learn from my mistakes and go for the next one.”