Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly have both been reprimanded for the accident that eliminated both on the opening lap of the French Grand Prix.
Ocon and Gasly were competing on home soil for the first time in their respective Formula 1 careers but came together through Virage de L’Hotel on the first lap at Paul Ricard.
The pair sustained terminal damage and stewards investigated the clash, before deeming that each had to apportion a share of the blame, resulting in reprimands.
The Stewards reviewed video evidence, heard from the driver of car 10 (Pierre Gasly),
“The driver of car 31 [Ocon] was optimistic in his move from the left of the track across to the apex of the corner,” read the report.
“The driver of car 10 [Gasly] was also overly optimistic in his late braking into the corner.
“The Stewards are of the view that both drivers made errors which contributed to the collision.”
On the collision, Ocon said: “I made a good start and got alongside Romain [Grosjean] down the pit straight before he made contact with me.
“I was on the edge of the track but he moved over and hit me, which caused a lot of damage to the side of my car and the floor.
“After that, Pierre lost it under braking in Turn 3 and hit me from behind, which ended my race completely.”
Gasly explained: “It was tough to finish the race after just three corners. In Turn 3 I went on the inside and I thought Esteban had seen me, when I saw he closed the door I couldn’t avoid the collision.
“It’s a shame to have this incident – especially at the French GP with two French drivers. It’s very difficult to take, I really wanted to do well this weekend and it’s definitely not wanted from my home race.”
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