Interlagos never fails to amaze its viewers since the circuit has repeatedly rivals engage in some of the most exciting races in history. At the sprint shootout on Saturday, former Alpine teammates Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon came together and ultimately damaged each other’s cars. During the race a few hours later, both drivers came close yet again, with the Spaniard needing to outmaneuver the Frenchman by making risky moves to gain positions. This resulted in both of them taking digs at one another. However, amidst all this Ocon‘s new partner, Pierre Gasly is still quite chirpy of the Aston Martin driver.
During his final out-lap in SQ1, Alonso got involved in a collision with Ocon at Turn 3. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that Ocon had sustained a minor “counter steering wheel” damage when passing the 42-year-old.
Nevertheless, Alonso, became more frustrated when he had to make some more reckless choices during the sprint than usual. Soymotor.com reports that the Spanish ace said, ” Whenever there is an Alpine you have to be extra careful. We touched entering Turn 6. They must think our car is narrower than it really is, and I ended up on grass again.”
It’s interesting to note that Alonso moved back toward the racing line without seeming to see Ocon approaching. Ocon exited the shape at this exact moment after going over the curbs. Following that, Ocon was eliminated while the two-time champion did advance to SQ2.
How did Pierre Gasly evaluate his battle with Fernando Alonso?
Given that Ocon and Alonso started the Sprint race from the eighth row, Gasly had an opportunity to face the two-time champion. In contrast, though, to Esteban Ocon, who declared Alonso to be an “idiot” and blamed him for the contact, Pierre Gasly claimed he was delighted to battle Alonso. However, he believes that the fight would have been far more thrilling if it had been about points though still the competitive interaction gave him a few learnings for the upcoming race.
According to Soymotor Gasly remarked, “I had a lot of fun fighting with Alonso in a fair way for positions that didn’t give access to points. We’ve learned a few things ahead of tomorrow’s race.” Even though Gasly and Alonso had a fantastic battle, the two-time champion is still disappointed that Ocon held him accountable for the collision.
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Even during their time together at Alpine, Ocon consistently aimed to finish ahead of Alonso. However now that the Spanish driver is driving an Aston Martin It appears like the Frenchman is trying to take on the same perspective.
Nevertheless in light of this, when Alonso was asked about the scenario from Ocon’s perspective, the two-time champion highlighted, ” He’s still very immature and hasn’t changed his way of seeing things, but hey, there are other things that don’t change either. He came out behind me like last year and stayed there, like last year. So it’s all normal.”
