Esteban Ocon declared “no hard feelings” with teammate Pierre Gasly after their collision at the Australian Grand Prix.
The two Alpine drivers got caught up in the melee at the second red flag restart, as Gasly ran wide at Turn 1 and rejoined fractionally alongside Ocon, with the latter unable to avoid contact that sent both into the barriers.
Given the much-talked-about history between the pair, the incident could have been a first test of their relationship as teammates, but Ocon was quick to move on.
“Obviously the chaotic restart, it could have been anyone that I collided with, to be honest,” he admitted.
Chaos. Chaos?! ?
An absolutely insane race restart in Australia ?#AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/hjGrjWBixS
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 2, 2023
“There were a lot of cars going off and obviously it ended up being Pierre not leaving me much space, but no hard feelings, he came and apologised and as I said, it could have been anyone.”
Ocon was left more frustrated though by the kamikaze approach of some drivers at the standing restart with two laps to go.
I don’t think that was the reason why so many people went off,” he said when asked if cold tyres were to blame, “people pushed to get results and took risks and obviously paid for some, didn’t pay for others.”
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As for Gasly, the moment ended comfortably his best race so far for Alpine which had seen him use DRS to keep up with Carlos Sainz in fifth for much of the race.
“I’m just extremely disappointed with the outcome of the race because I gave everything out there,” he told Sky Sports.
“I was racing with the Ferrari, [Fernando] Alonso in my cycle the majority of the race with three laps to go and we didn’t expect to be in such a position.
“So running in P5 on pace was definitely a nice surprise out there. I just can’t believe what happened in the end.”
“This one hurts” ?
You can count on @PierreGASLY to bounce back in Baku ?#AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/VZPpaRBrKg
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 3, 2023
Taking the positives, Pierre added: “I mean it came a bit unexpected, but I felt comfortable in the car and it’s clearly giving some good directions for the future with the team on what we need and just giving some extra motivation for the coming races that we have got the pace to be fighting out there.”
Unfortunately for Alpine, the big beneficiary of their double retirement was McLaren, as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finished sixth and eighth to jump up to fifth in the Constructors’ standings ahead of the French outfit.