03/04/2023
NEWS STORY
The decision to take no further action over the incident which eliminated both Alpines, means that Pierre Gasly avoids a potential race ban.
Having accrued 10 penalty points in the last 12 months, the last thing the Frenchman needs, especially as he picked up those points with another team, is to get involved in any further incidents which would mean an automatic race ban.
However, a clash with teammate Esteban Ocon at the controversial final restart had him sweating.
Fortunately, after investigating the incident the Melbourne stewards opted to take no further action.
Having heard from both drivers, and having reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video and in-car video evidence, the stewards deemed that the clash was a first lap racing incident.
"For now I'm just gutted to miss a strong result," said Gasly, who at the time of the restart was fifth, with his teammate tenth. "For us to be so close to scoring 10 points and leaving without any is a bitter one for us to take.
"I don't even want to comment about the end," he added. "I'm just extremely disappointed with the outcome of the race because I gave everything out there."
Despite the fact that there is history between the two Alpine drivers, Ocon refused to blame his teammate for the incident.
"The chaotic restart, it could have been anyone that I collided with because there were a lot of cars going off and obviously it ended up being Pierre not leaving me much space, but no hard feelings," he told reporters. "He came and apologised and as I said it could have been anyone."
"I'm feeling OK, a little bit of a headache," he added, his Alpine having been forced into the wall by his teammate's errant car. "It has been a hard hit but I will be OK.
"I'm more tough than that,” he laughed. “I will survive. But a tricky weekend."
Despite not blaming his teammate for the clash, Ocon is concerned at the "suicidal" attitudes of some drivers at restarts.
"My tyres were hot, I didn't feel like it was very slippery," he said. "But what was tricky was a little bit the light being lower, we couldn't really see so well.
"But some drivers just suicidal a bit in Turn 1," he added. "It was very close and obviously there's a lot to gain at the time, but a little bit too much for some drivers."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Melbourne here.