Gasly apologises to Ocon over crash which eliminated both Alpines

2023 Australian Grand Prix

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Pierre Gasly offered his apologies to his team mate after triggering the collision which eliminated the pair of them at the end of the Australian Grand Prix.

Alpine came away from the Australian Grand Prix pointless despite having both their drivers in the top 10 with two laps to go. Gasly was running fifth, five places ahead of Esteban Ocon when the race was red-flagged for the second time.

However Gasly ran wide at turn one and rejoined the track as several cars were passing. He tangled with Ocon, which put both into the barriers at turn two.

Gasly, who is only two penalty points away from reaching the 12 which would trigger an automatic race ban, spoke only briefly after the race.

“I don’t have anything to say,” he told the official Formula 1 channel. “I’m just extremely disappointed and just want to remember the positive. We didn’t expect to be fighting one Ferrari and to have Alonso in my sights for most of the race. So that’s what we will remember.

“The rest I just have no comment and I’m way too disappointed to be standing here and looking at these guys doing one lap.”

Ocon said his team mate apologised for the collision. He feels he could have easily tangled with any other driver at the “chaotic” restart.

Race start, Albert Park, 2023
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“It could have been any one that I collided with to be honest, because there was a lot of cars going off,” he said. “Obviously it ended up being Pierre not leaving me much space, but no hard feelings, he came and apologised. As I said, it could have been anyone.”

Ocon’s said his race was going well until it was ruined by one of the red flags. “Nothing really clicked in our direction the whole weekend, things that were out of our control really,” he said.

“It’s extremely frustrating because we had good pace. I think we were similar to the Astons, the Ferrari in front so we could have been much further up. We were just racing on our own passing some cars, so we were doing a good race from where we were.

“But that red flag just killed our strategy. We were going to be fourth or fifth, probably, without the red flag, but that killed it completely.”

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2023 Australian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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15 comments on “Gasly apologises to Ocon over crash which eliminated both Alpines”

  1. Kinda expect that confirmation of a Gasly 1 race ban is pretty imminent.

    1. Really? Instead the stewards (as I expected) decided not to hand him any penalty to avoid that happening @eurobrun.

      1. I’m surprised he got nothing. I imagine Alpine tried to defuse the situation, given it was team mates.

  2. harsh vardhan harsh vardhan
    2nd April 2023, 14:59

    How is that Gasly’s fault ??
    Ocon knew a car is closing the door, he has to back off isn’t it ?
    Gasly focus would be looking in front to take the line he missed

    1. Are you such a Gasly fan that you’re incapable of admitting that he either a) recklessly rejoined the track without checking his mirror AND THEN also moved across the track without having done said check or b) he intentionally squeezed a much faster Ocon (as in faster at that point due to having made the corner) in a desperate bid to not lose a position?

      1. harsh vardhan harsh vardhan
        2nd April 2023, 16:07

        Calm down Nick . I am no fan of any driver.
        What you said is wrong for race start. Lots of things going around. So it’s easier for Ocon to estimate what’s gonna happen than Gasly

        1. The “gas man” as he nicknamed himself told me to balls to the walls even when commenting!

      2. I think you both are right. Was the way Gasly rejoined the track dangerous? Definitely Yes. He should know better there was a train of cars coming. Was Ocon in better position to avoid the crash? Also, definitely yes.

    2. C’mon now, the only reason Gasly isn’t more than 100% responsible for this crash is that it’s mathematically impossible.

    3. I have an opinion
      2nd April 2023, 20:57

      Gasly was contrite as he feared a penalty and race ban. It was easily within Ocon’s capability to avoid this crash, and we know he has form for this kind of thing. Just ask Perez, Verstappen, etc., etc.

      1. harsh vardhan harsh vardhan
        3rd April 2023, 9:45

        Thats what I said, when you see a car move across the track and recovering. Ocon had every posbility to avoid the crash by using his left foot and something above his neck, instead of going full throttle when you clearly see accidents around you.

        He saw Gasly lock up, Alonso spinning around , Gasly rejoining in front and still don’t back off.
        After this race, I really have doubts about F1 driver’s quality and FIAs dumb decisions.

  3. Very sad for gasly, even if he was at fault for the crash, he drove an awesome race and lost it because of a silly restart decision for the sake of the show (not safety, as you can see from the cars pile-up).

    1. @esploratore1

      Agree.. Gasly would have got my vote for DOTW if he just kept it in P5. He had mega pace all race long.. he was matching Lewis’, Fernando’s and Carlos’ time for the entire race. He was constantly a threat in Ferrari’s mirrors.

      Shame he binned it on the restart.

      1. I think this is the reason why Ocon was unusually forgiving towards Gasly. With this move, Gasly deprived himself of being the hero of the weekend.

        1. Honestly, Ocon was forgiving because he would have been fired if he pushed for the Gasly ban.

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