Gasly: ‘With Ocon, it’s always the same thing…’
Pierre Gasly was left disappointed but not surprised by Esteban Ocon’s on-track move during their fight for position in Sunday’s Mexican Grand Prix, saying that “it’s always the same thing” with the Force India Formula 1 driver.
Gasly felt he was forced off-track by Ocon when the pair went wheel-to-wheel at Turn 4 in the closing stages of the race, only for the stewards to deem that a car’s width of space had been left, and that the Toro Rosso driver had gone off as a result of a lock-up.
Pierre Gasly was left disappointed but not surprised by Esteban Ocon’s on-track move during their fight for position in Sunday’s Mexican Grand Prix, saying that “it’s always the same thing” with the Force India Formula 1 driver.
Gasly felt he was forced off-track by Ocon when the pair went wheel-to-wheel at Turn 4 in the closing stages of the race, only for the stewards to deem that a car’s width of space had been left, and that the Toro Rosso driver had gone off as a result of a lock-up.
Gasly managed to pass Ocon and score a point for finishing 10th, but remained unhappy with his compatriots’ actions after the race in the latest incident between the two rivals.
“With Ocon it’s always the same thing. I’ve known him for a long time, there are a lot of chances that things happen,” Gasly said.
“I think he wasn’t very happy that I had started last and managed to overtake him, so he pushed me wide and I had to go off track. I could have forced my way in Turn 5 and we would have had contact, but it wasn’t worth it, as I could have another go after that.
“For me it wasn’t fair, because you leave the space for one car, but if they say you can race aggressively, I don’t mind.
“I think compare it with many other situations, like with me in Silverstone, so it seems to be quite a grey area, as normally you should leave space for one car and clearly there wasn’t space for one car there.
“In the end I don’t care, because I finished ahead of him and I scored one point, and he didn’t score points.”
Gasly confirmed he would look to speak with FIA race director Charlie Whiting about the matter in order to clarify what is permitted when fighting on-track.
“I’ll try to speak to Charlie about it, just to know, because if this is allowed then I know what I can do,” Gasly said.
“I need to look at the footage again, but from the cockpit it looked too aggressive for me, I had to go off track.
“Probably if I had finished behind him, I would have a different view, but today I finished in front.”
