Double withdrawal in one fell swoop
It couldn’t have ended in the worst way Hungarian Grand Prix for theAlpinewith the two riders of the French team who effectively finished the race at first corner of the first lap, and therefore a few moments after departure. Everything happened in a flash, with Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly coming into contact without any kind of responsibility attributable to a single rider or both. Ocon (who obtained his first and only career victory at the Hungaroring last year) has in fact hit his teammate’s car after being rear-ended by Ricciardo. At first, judging by the television images, it was thought to be a mistake by the Australian, moreover in his first GP since his return to F1.
The dynamics of the accident
However, only thanks to the replays, it was instead discovered that the new AlphaTauri driver was unable to do anything to dodge the number 31 of the Alpine, thanks to the loss of control of the car after being hit by the Alfa Romeo of Guanyu Zhou, already the author of a bad start and subsequently penalized by 5 seconds for the maneuver performed. The fact remains that, in the contact, Ocon’s car lifted slightly from the ground, landing on Gasly’s rear wing. The damage suffered by both cars proved to be irreparable for the mechanics, who were unable to do anything to intervene on the single-seaters, who thus returned to the pits for the double retirement.
A torrid start and a premature end for both Alpine drivers 💥😖#HungarianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/MWpV1CcH7N
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 23, 2023
The comments of the pilots
Or withalready recovering from another KO at Silverstone, commented briefly and with great bitterness on the incident: “There’s not much to say today – he has declared – the end of the weekend was very frustrating, as we were involved in a racing incident with some cars at turn 1 on the first lap. We couldn’t do much and the result was that both cars had to retire with significant damage. Luckily I’m fine. We are now concentrating on regrouping and coming back stronger, as we have another race in Belgium next weekend. We need to move forward quickly with the aim of tackling the summer break on a good note.” A statement very similar to that of Pierre Gasly: “It is extremely frustrating for the whole team to have a double retirement, especially under these circumstances so early in the race – he added – I was the unfortunate victim of an accident between a couple of cars and I had no chance of avoiding the crash. It’s disappointing, after a good start that allowed me to gain a couple of positions. As a team, we need to move forward quickly and we have an immediate opportunity at Spa next weekend to ensure we go into the summer break with some points.”
#Alpine #nightmare #Hungary #Ocon #Gasly #lap #FormulaPassion