(Motorsports news) Gasly was urged to let Ocon pass in the late stages of last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix to repay a favor from earlier in the race, as the pair finished ninth and tenth. He originally refused to cooperate, only let Ocon through on the penultimate lap following numerous appeals from his race engineer. Gasly responded angrily because he believed he was the faster car on the day and would always be ahead due to his faster strategy.
His misunderstanding also stemmed from a lack of communication before the race about this exact scenario. But interim team principal Bruno Famin said the reversal was the right thing to do because Gasly was only allowed to pass Ocon to see if he could overtake the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso in front, with the positions then swapped when it became clear that wasn’t going to happen.
From Ocon’s position there was never any confusion, because he felt Alpine’s policy on the matter had been consistent. “I’ve been with this team for four years now and the rule has always been this one, with Daniel Ricciardo, with Fernando,” he replied when asked, if it was always clear to him that he was going to get the position back.
“I’ve been with this team for four years now, and the rule has always been this one, with Daniel Ricciardo, with Fernando Alonso,” he said when asked if he knew he’d get the position back. If one driver swaps positions, so in that case I gave Pierre the position, he needs to get the position in front, which was Fernando, to keep that position.”
“Otherwise, you simply return the position to your teammate.” That’s what we’ve always done. If I were on the other side, I would undoubtedly do the same.” Ocon felt Gasly’s argument that he was the faster car and so entitled to keep the lead didn’t hold up in this case. “It’s really not relevant,” he said.
“You can go as quickly as you want. You never know who will be in front if you don’t make the move. And before that, I was in the lead. “Of course, we’ll talk about it to see what we could have done better as a team. However, if you look at Brazil 2021, Fernando was the same, and if you look at Sochi 2020, Daniel was the same. It’s always been a team order that I’ve known, and I wasn’t surprised that this was the case.”
Ocon said that he was pleasantly delighted to pick up points despite being involved in a Turn 1 fight with Valtteri Bottas and Alex Albon, which forced him to pit early due to a puncture. “Yeah, definitely, I thought it was race over from lap one when I got that puncture,” he replied. “When I saw all these cars sandwiched on the side, there wasn’t much anyone could have done differently.” It’s an unfortunate occurrence.
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