Esteban Ocon: “We had the performance to fight with the Ferraris and Aston Martins”
The Frenchman could have finished in the points in Melbourne, if his own teammate hadn't collided with him during the chaotic sprint of the last two laps, which was full of crashes.
Suffering from a double abandonment is never pleasant for an F1 team. Even less so when it involves a crash between teammates. That’s what happened to Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, with the latter being at fault in the chaos that ensued after the restart following the red flag caused by Kevin Magnussen.
Pierre Gasly came out of turn 1, forcing him to return to the track in a very risky way. On the other hand, Esteban Ocon tried to take advantage of a strong exit from turn 1 and unfortunately made contact with the back of his teammate’s car as both drivers accelerated out of turn 2. The collision between the two cars, which came to a stop against the safety wall, took both drivers out of the race. A very sad outcome for Esteban Ocon, who, after starting the race in 11th position, made an early pit stop on the 2nd lap, banking on the hard tires to go all the way to the end of the race.
“It’s really a shame that the two cars didn’t finish today’s race, especially after showing great pace throughout the weekend, so leaving with nothing, it’s difficult for all of us,” the Alpine driver reacts.
« The restart at the end was very chaotic and everything went very quickly. The collision with Pierre was unfortunate, and I’m glad that we both are safe and sound. We talked about it, everything is fine, and there are no hard feelings,” he continued after accepting his teammate’s apologies. « We are both looking forward to the next race, and I know that the whole team will want to put this weekend behind us.
