FIA race director Charlie Whiting claims Esteban Ocon was “wrong” to fight Max Verstappen but also believed Red Bull could have helped the situation.
The now infamous incident saw the Force India driver make contact with the Dutchman as he tried to unlap himself through the Senna S, allowing Lewis Hamilton back through for the win as Max had to settle for second.
“He’s absolutely allowed to unlap himself,” Whiting said post-race. “That’s clear, it’s happened many times in the past.
“However, you would expect it to be done safely – more to the point it should be done cleanly and absolutely without fighting.
“He shouldn’t be fighting to get past. If he’s got the pace then normally one would expect Red Bull to say ‘Ocon’s got the pace, just let him through’, that sort of thing.
“But it seemed that he just went for it and it was a bit unfortunate that he decided to fight for it which was wholly unacceptable.”
The stewards did come down harshly on Ocon giving him a 10-second stop/go penalty, the harshest punishment allowed before disqualification.
Interestingly, though Whiting confirmed the fact it was the then-race leader in Verstappen, had no bearing on that decision.
“I don’t think it makes any difference that he was a leader,” he said. “It makes it worse in a lot of people’s eyes but as far as the stewards are concerned that doesn’t matter.”
Reaction is still coming in on the coming together with the always outspoken Jacques Villeneuve the latest to add his opinion.
“Ocon is an embarrassment. That was ridiculous,” the Canadian told Motorsport.com. “The worst bit is everyone has seen what happened, and on the radio not even a ‘sorry guys, I was wrong.’ It’s good to accept you’re wrong.
“You can unlap yourself, but do it properly. You’re not allowed to put the leader at risk at all. You don’t do something that loses time for the other driver and is taking a risk.
“Overtaking on the straight and you’re in front is fine but that looked like it was a battle for the lead.”
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Ocon has been involved in previous collisions too, notably in Baku with Kimi Raikkonen and the multiple with teammate Sergio Perez since the start of 2017.
“It shows he has no racecraft, zero racecraft whatsoever,” Villeneuve added.
“All the incidents in the last two years where maybe it’s his fault, maybe it’s not, you can kind of think that maybe he was in the wrong because he hasn’t read the race properly.
“And he never learns, because it’s never his fault, ever.”