Esteban Ocon has defended his controversial overtake on Alexander Albon within the Dutch Grand Prix and criticised the Formulation 1 rule that meant he was pegged again for the second begin.
As Max Verstappen crashed out and Gabriel Bortoleto endured a 360-degree spin on lap one at a barely damp Zandvoort observe, an opportunistic Ocon re-accelerated quicker than Albon on the finish of the yellow-flag zone to seize thirteenth place – which the Anglo-Thai driver disapproved of – shortly after crossing the beginning/end line.
“I’m sorry, however what Esteban did is loopy,” Albon ranted on the radio. “He’s overtaking me in the course of the crash.”
Whereas the Williams driver wasn’t requested in regards to the transfer in his post-race media session, Ocon was – and insisted he’d performed nothing fallacious.
“I overtook Alex, yeah, however I had the precise, as a result of it was inexperienced,” the Haas racer stated, earlier than mentioning the grid for the second begin was established primarily based on the classification on the finish of lap one, which means his overtake was null and void.
“What was a giant disgrace is that it’s a must to take all these dangers, you recognize?” Ocon added. “You are enjoying with both getting a penalty or not. I used to be not having a penalty, but it surely was very tight, as a result of I simply handed him when it was inexperienced. After which they put you again on the race begin.
“It has been like that endlessly, however… Actually, if that was 20 metres earlier, then I used to be having the place. However we nonetheless raced, like, for one-and-a-half sector. The pink flag solely got here after Flip 5, you recognize? So, we handed sector one, and we have been stepping into sector two. So, I ought to have began in entrance of Alex – as a result of that modified my race.”
Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Staff
Photograph by: Simon Galloway / LAT Photographs through Getty Photographs
Ocon spent the primary a part of the race caught behind Albon and pitted fairly early, on lap 16, in a bid to search out free air. He was 14th once more when he retired on lap 53 on account of an influence unit situation.
“After that, clearly, there’s loads of issues that possibly we may have performed otherwise, with technique, and many others,” the Frenchman admitted. “Fernando [Alonso] did a extremely, actually good technique, I do not suppose we may have performed the identical one with out degradation. However there are issues that we are able to look into to do a greater job.”
Ocon is adamant {that a} extra up-to-date classification may have been taken under consideration when organising the second begin of the race.
“We aren’t going to imagine that in Formulation 1 we do not have timing loops each 20 metres, you recognize? It is a very old-school rule, actually,” he continued.
“I stated it on the radio, let’s not make Alex go in entrance once more on the restart. As a result of that shouldn’t be the case. And for some cause I felt it, that they have been going to place him in entrance once more. They nonetheless take the road, which is like two kilometres again. It should not be like that, it needs to be the final second.”
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