Alpine driver Esteban Ocon defended rival Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, who was later handed a three-place penalty due to his disability. However, according to French, the incident between the two of them was not that serious…
The incident under investigation by the FIA occurred during the second stage of qualifying, when most of the field quickly turned into slicks on an increasingly drying track (this was eventually the trend for only a few minutes before it started to rain again in Montreal and racing conditions became more difficult ).
Ocon met Stroll in turn six, who didn’t move out of the dry corner, so the Frenchman had to “force” him behind him. In doing so, he lost valuable time, even noting on his team radio that he had been held up by his Canadian opponent.
After the warning – even before Stroll’s penalty was announced – he spoke more softly of what had happened. “Obviously it didn’t have any effect on my results. Going into Q3, my performance was enough to go ahead. There were really tough moments during qualifying when we were riding slicks” He said.
“In such cases, if you drive on the wet curve, you will slide out on the next turn. It’s a tough situation, so I’m sure he won’t be punishedHe noted, but the FIA was “unswayed” by his opinion; Stroll was classified three places behind.
Stroll finally took the sixth starting position, which he described as a particularly good result after the wave. “The conditions were constantly changing, and everyone managed it. That’s true of me and the team as well. I’m completely happy with every decision. Getting ready for the weekend has been very challenging. We had an engine problem, due to which we didn’t run much, which also affected our tactics.” Timing. We had no additional intermediate frame. – Tell.
“Before qualifying I couldn’t really go, I couldn’t catch the rhythm of the car. I basically had a good lap and had to use the same combination for the time trial. So we started off a bit, but after that the time trial went very well, and I couldn’t be happier with the result. I finished 6th, even though I was 18th or 19th the whole time.So everything was greatHe finished.
