The FIA fined Williams and Alpine after Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto were caught speeding in final practice for the Monaco Grand Prix, turning a routine Saturday session into a costly one for both teams. Williams was fined €100 after Albon was clocked at 60.2km/h in the pit lane, while Alpine was hit with a €900 penalty after Colapinto was measured at 68.8km/h.
The fines landed on a day when the race weekend’s order was still being sorted out, and that is why the f1 driver standings search is climbing now: Monaco’s final practice was the last serious chance to judge pace before qualifying, with Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli ending FP3 on top, more than three tenths clear of Ferrari pair Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. Albon and Colapinto, meanwhile, were classified 16th and 19th respectively.
For Williams, the penalty followed a messy lap for Albon, who twice locked up and ran straight on at Sainte Devote before rejoining by reversing his car back onto the track. Colapinto’s run was even more compromised. He had a half spin at the hairpin, then pitted for rear-wing repairs before the stewards logged the pit-lane breach. Monaco leaves almost no margin for error, and with a 60 kilometre-per-hour limit in place in the lane, even small overshoots are quickly noticed.
The final minutes of FP3 were not clean for anyone else either. The session ended under a red flag after Oliver Bearman crashed at Massenet, cutting short the last major practice benchmark before qualifying. That matters because Monaco punishes teams that lose track time, and it also makes every penalty and repair bill feel larger than it would at a conventional circuit.
What the FIA did not say is whether either team will face anything beyond the monetary fines. For now, the answer is simple: Williams and Alpine have paid for the breaches, but the bigger test in Monaco still lies ahead on a track where one mistake can ruin a grid slot and a weekend at the same time.
