In a rather monotonous race dominated from start to finish by Max Verstappen, the one responsible for bringing excitement to the final laps of the United States Grand Prix was Franco Colapinto.
The Argentine driver, behind the wheel of the Alpine, caught up with his teammate Pierre Gasly when both were outside the points (in 17th and 18th positions), but he received the team order to hold his place. However, Colapinto did not hesitate: since he considered the Frenchman had a "slow" pace, he decided to overtake him anyway with a clean move on the inside at turn 1 at the start of lap 54 of 56.
The move, far from going unnoticed, was celebrated by several former drivers who were commenting on the F1 TV broadcast. The Scotsman David Coulthard, world runner-up in 2001, defended the Argentine's attitude: "That's racing. You have to show yourself. It was a clean overtake. I'm sure they'll talk later about whether it was right or wrong, but you have to race," he said, highlighting that Colapinto "needed to prove he can match Gasly's pace."
