Revealed: How much it will cost Jeremy Clarkson to honour bet with Alpine

Thomas Maher
Jeremy Clarkson and Alpine's Esteban Ocon. Monte Carlo, May 2023.

Jeremy Clarkson and Alpine's Esteban Ocon. Monte Carlo, May 2023.

Esteban Ocon appeared intent on holding Jeremy Clarkson true to his word after scoring third place in Monte Carlo.

The Alpine driver put in a tremendous drive from third place on the grid to come through the entire 78 laps without falling victim to the stalking Ferraris and Mercedes behind, although did get a slice of luck when George Russell managed to get ahead through the switch to the intermediate tyre.

But Russell promptly slid off the road at Mirabeau, handing the third place position back to Ocon, who didn’t put a wheel wrong all race and pulled off his first podium of the year.

It was also Alpine’s first podium since the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix with Fernando Alonso, while Ocon’s last podium appearance was his win at the Hungaroring two years ago.

Ocon’s podium finish led the French driver to yell “Estie bestie’s on the podium, baby!”, revealing a new nickname he’s picked up within the team, while his drive also secured him the honours of the F1 Driver of the Day.

Esteban Ocon responds to Jeremy Clarkson’s generous offer

Jeremy Clarkson, journalist and long-time Top Gear UK and Amazon Grand Tour presenter, spent his Sunday afternoon tweeting about the Monaco Grand Prix to his eight million followers.

As a long-time F1 fan, Clarkson clearly got into the spirit of the occasion as the race entered its final stages and wrote: “Come on Alpine, I’ll buy you all a pint if you get a podium here,” tagging the Enstone-based squad in the tweet.

With Ocon claiming the final podium position, he spotted Clarkson’s offer on Twitter afterward and responded with a simple smiley face. Clarkson then wrote “Well done Alpine, I owe you many Hawkstones.”, referring to the bespoke home-grown beer he produces from his farm in the UK’s Cotswolds.

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Assuming Clarkson follows through on his promise, it won’t cost the presenter ‘Diddly Squat’ either. According to his website, depending on quantity ordered, a bottle of Hawkstone costs around £2.50. With Alpine boasting around 1000 employees on its F1 team, Clarkson will have to stump up around £2500 worth of his beer to stay true to his word!

Several Alpine employees responded to the tweet, with sub assembly coordinator Ellie Williams sharing a picture of herself and a colleague celebrating in the pits and writing: “waits patiently for several bottles of beer to arrive at our factory…”, while wind tunnel engineer Brett Foster wrote “looking forward to it!”

Jeremy Clarkson also pokes fun at Max Verstappen

With the divisive presenter tweeting his random thoughts throughout the entirety of the Monaco Grand Prix, Clarkson also couldn’t resist having some fun at Max Verstappen’s expense.

Sharing a picture of the reigning World Champion walking down the pitlane with his cooling vest on, Clarkson wrote “Christ. With that lot on board, my money’s on Max.”

While perhaps not immediately obvious what he might be talking about, a closer look at Verstappen’s cooling vest revealed it bore a striking resemblance to little baggies of illicit substances!

Alpine Esteban Ocon Jeremy Clarkson

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