“It was an unfortunate incident really” – Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon reveal the reason for their collision in the opening practice in Imola for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Former teammates Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon collided during the opening practice in Imola, ending both their sessions. Perez’s Red Bull’s left-rear wheel caught Ocon’s Alpine’s right-front at the Villeneuve chicane. Post-this, the former revealed the weird reason behind the cause of the accident.
“We didn’t have radio, so it was a miscommunication through there. I thought Esteban was slower than he was and I misjudged going into the apex. It was just bad timing for myself.”
#FP1 is stopped with Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon stranded on the track.
Back to the pits for now. #HaasF1 #ImolaGP #FP1 pic.twitter.com/TtN0Hv4F8E
— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) April 16, 2021
For those unaware, a local optic-fiber cable failure led to major communications failure during the session. Radio coms., live tyre data, and GPS data suffered the most. TV onboard cameras also failed, the reason why there is no live footage of the incident.
Ocon spoke to Perez after the incident
Ocon revealed he spoke to Perez on the way back and sorted matters out. As it was Friday, it was more important for the teams to mitigate the damage suffered on the cars. Both Red Bull and Alpine are hoping for strong outcomes this weekend.
“It was an unfortunate incident really. Checo was on a slow lap, touching his steering wheel or something, and we both collided at the entry of the corner.
“It is unfortunate but we spoke about it and the stewards also said it is not a big deal. The more worrying thing was the damage for both of us but it didn’t compromise our sessions.”
