Start, Istanbul Park, 2020

Ricciardo apologised for ruining Ocon’s “best start all season”

2020 Bahrain Grand Prix

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Esteban Ocon says his team mate Daniel Ricciardo apologised for knocking him into a spin at the start of the Turkish Grand Prix.

The two Renault drivers made strong starts at Istanbul but touched in turn one, sending Ocon spinning off. He recovered to finish 11th, one place behind Ricciardo.

“Daniel came and apologised,” explained Ocon, who originally thought Valtteri Bottas was responsible for the collision after the pair also tangled at turn nine later in the lap.

“I didn’t know it was Daniel actually who touched me,” said Ocon. “I thought it was Valtteri who touched me twice because the way I spun I saw Valtteri spinning as well in turn one and then later in the lap Valtteri touched me again and we both spun. So I thought it was twice Valtteri who touched me. But then Daniel obviously apologised.”

Ocon does not think Ricciardo was to blame for the collision. “He had nowhere to go, it was clear that it was not his fault. It was just the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Basically we were all sandwiched, pretty much. I couldn’t go wide because I was going to go out and they were all stuck on the inside.”

Ocon said the contact cost him a “flying start” and compromised what could have been a strong result. “It was the best [start] that I had all season.

“I felt comfortable as well with the car later on in the race. So it is a bit disappointing. Recently it hasn’t been the easiest, it didn’t go my way each time. But we will turn that around and make it happen.”

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2020 Bahrain Grand Prix

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6 comments on “Ricciardo apologised for ruining Ocon’s “best start all season””

  1. Hamilton had to take all the risks he did, but I would say it was Hamilton going down the inside and forcing Ricciardo to open the steering that caused it. 3 into one often doesn’t go but it will have been hard for Hamilton to see Ocon on the outside of Ricciardo.

    1. I also think Bottas’s first spin was likely him having to avoid Ocon. But then in a desperate attempt to recover he had that 2nd crash which basically damaged his car and led to the rest of his spins.

  2. The results will eventually come as long as he keeps on the level of performance until the point he started to lose out because of the tyre issues.

    1. Wrong article. I don’t know how this post got here, which wasn’t my intention.

  3. “Someone forced my teammate to ping-pong me!”

  4. According to a late report Alan Permane said that Hamilton actually came into contact with Ricciardo forcing him to correct ever so slightly , go wide, and subsequently touching Ocon. Ocon shouldn’t have been there as there was no way he was going to make it around the outside in those conditions…if ever. It’s a mark of the man that he, Ricciardo, acknowledged the incident and made good with his team mate. Something that IMO wouldn’t be reciprocated if the boot was on the other foot.

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