Esteban Ocon retorted that “mistakes happen” after his clash with Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly resulted in a Lap 1 exit from the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix.
Shortly before the Red Flag came down on the field due to Sergio Perez’s coming together with the two Haas machines, Ocon sought an opportunity to overtake Gasly at the Turn 8 right-hander ahead of the famous Monaco tunnel.
Gasly was being held up by Williams’ Alex Albon so Ocon saw an opportunity to dive inside his team-mate, but the move didn’t pay off.
Gasly was left with nowhere to go and the pair made contact, sending Ocon into the air and crashing down heavily, sustaining damage that was too significant for him to make the restart.
“Yeah, it’s an unfortunate incident,” Ocon said.
“We basically tried to put the car back in the garage to try and repair, unfortunately there was too much damage sustained, and we were not able to go back again.
“A chaotic first lap. Yeah. I hope that the team can score some points.
“You know, you have to take care, but in the same time, we are doing 120% to be trying to get inside the top 10, for me, for Pierre.
“We saw it yesterday, we pushed to the limit a lot in qualifying. Mistakes happen. That’s it.”
The stewards deemed Ocon culpable for the mistake, handing him a five-place grid drop – the equivalent of a 10-second time penalty – for next time out in Montreal, Canada in two week’s time.
Crashing out after contact with a team-mate is the number one rule that all F1 drivers are told not to break and Alpine will understandably be frustrated by Ocon’s risk-taking on the opening lap.
Worse still, the Alpine suffered damage to the gearbox and suspension arms, meaning the team will have to bear the financial brunt of the repairs.
Reflecting later on, Ocon took to social media to apologise for his hand in the incident.
“Today’s incident was my fault, the gap was too small in the end and I apologise to the team on this one,” Ocon wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter).
“Hoping for a deserved points-finish for the team today.”
At the time of writing, Gasly was circulating in 10th position.
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