Ocon’s seat broke in two in “violent” first lap crash-landing

Esteban Ocon said his seat broke in two after he crashed to the ground in the first-lap collision which put him out of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Both Alpine drivers were forced out of the race after Ocon was hit from behind, sending him into team mate Pierre Gasly. Ocon’s car rode on top of the other A523 and landed heavily.

The two cars suffered race-ending damage. Speaking in response to a question from RaceFans at the Hungaroring, Ocon said his seat “broke in two pieces, that’s how hard the impact was and how violent it was.”

He didn’t realise exactly what the cause of his handling problem was after the crash. “I just completely dropped in the car and I thought it was the rear suspension that was broken because the car was handling terribly, obviously, after that much damage,” he explained. “But no, it was actually the seat that broke, which changed my position.”

Ocon was frustrated by the collision, which was triggered by Zhou Guanyu, who ran into Daniel Ricciardo, sending the AlphaTauri into the Alpine. Ocon had Gasly on his outside at the time, who had made a rapid start on a set of the soft compound tyres.

“We had plenty of room,” said Ocon. “I think at the time I would have taken the position, got around the car that was on the inside, it would have been tight with Pierre on the exit but it would have been okay.

“Obviously Pierre was starting on the soft tyre so that was always the aim for him to get quite a lot of positions at the start. But that was not the problem, the problem was the hit from behind that took us both out.”

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He said the collision wasn’t “bad luck” but “the consequences of starting in the back.” He started 12th, three places ahead of Gasly, while Zhou got away poorly from fifth.

“A double DNF is a big shame. After that start I already gained a place obviously from Zhou and I was probably going to go around the outside of whoever it was on the inside but I was probably going to be P10 already so there was some good prospects.

“But this will have to be done next week. We are lucky enough to be racing and forget that one quite quickly.”

Gasly, who suffered rear wing damage in the collision, said it was “extremely frustrating for the whole team” to lose both cars on the first lap.

“On my side I took a really good start, we knew it was the target with the soft tyre. I managed to get off the line very well, positioned myself well into turn one, braked late, make already a couple of positions.

“From what I saw and heard Zhou touched Daniel who touched Esteban and then Esteban ended up on top of my car. So it’s just very unfortunate.”

The double retirement means Alpine haven’t scored a point for the last two races in a row. “We just don’t seem to catch a break at the moment,” said Gasly. “Every weekend we seem to have some unfortunate scenarios like that and I hope we can get away from this sort of spiral quite quickly and just get a clean run, especially for next weekend before the summer break.”

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