Ehe last Austrian Grand Prix left great duels between drivers. The most striking took place at the head of the race between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris that ended with the Englishman out of combat. Before this, it took place another battle that involved the two Alpines, and Fernando Alonso was able to see everything from very close up.
Unlike the duel between the first and second in the world championship, none of the French team’s cars ended up damaged. They both completed the race, Gasly scratched one point with a tenth place, while Ocon had to settle for a twelfth place outside the points zone. This event, despite not damaging the cars, left the team very angry with what happened.
Alonso was involved in the battle
Fernando was involved in this fight, because, at the time it started, he was ahead of the two Alpine riders. At that moment they warned him by radio about the strategy of the two cars behind him and asked him to try to stay ahead.. The former Alpha Tauri arrived with a better pace than both and began his offensive to pass them and fight to enter the points zone.
Until this moment everything was going well, because the Aston Martin had no rhythm at the Red Bull Ring and it was a battle that the Asturian had lost. The problem came with Esteban Ocon, who after passing Fernando, tried to maintain the position and to do so he closed the Aston Martin, while Gasly passed him on the outside. At this moment, the two Alpines continued shooting and began their private war.
Once the two Alpines were ahead of Fernando, they both fought for position, Ocon on the inside and Gasly on the outside. When the time came, 31 did not hesitate to throw his teammate off the track. Alonso in his role as a spectator did not have a bad time at all and said “wow” to his team on the radio.
This was not the only message that the Asturian was going to send over the radio. Since in this attack between the Alpine, Ocon had made a very dangerous maneuver that forced the Aston Martin driver to brake in the middle of the straight. “I almost had a serious accident, luckily, I took my foot off the accelerator. Imagine if I did it…How many seconds?”the Asturian commented on the radio to his team while leaving a message to the FIA and its sanctions.
Fernando Alonso was dissatisfied with the sanctions imposed by the FIA, because after the incident that could have cost him the race, Ocon finished the Austrian Grand Prix without sanction. Through irony, The Asturian asked his team what would have happened if the one who made another driver brake like that was him.
The one who did receive a sanction in this race was Fernando himself for his incident with Zhou. The Aston Martin driver braked later than the Sauber driver, blocked and ended up crashing. This meant a 10-second penalty that made Fernando’s race even more complicated, as he finished 18th. The same sanction that Verstappen received after the clash with Norris that left the Englishman out of the race.
