Ocon cleared of blocking Raikkonen at Monza
The Stewards’ will take no further action against Esteban Ocon after an incident with Kimi Raikkonen during qualifying for the Italian GP.
During Q1 a group of drivers formed all searching for a tow from each other, and all squabbling for track position in the process.
But it was Ocon who brought the most attention upon himself after Raikkonen almost drove in to the Renault man on several occasions.
On-board footage from Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo seemed to show Ocon weaving around the track and blocking Raikkonen’s attempts to overtake.
However, the Stewards’ will take no further action after concluding that Ocon was in fact reacting to the Williams of Nicholas Latifi changing lines in front of him, who in turn was doing the same after Lewis Hamilton had also moved ahead of the Canadian.
“The stewards concluded that what appeared to be erratic movement of cars was due to a combination of circumstances which they, and the two drivers present, agreed was probably unavoidable and was not dangerous,” reads the report from the Stewards’.
“Car 44 [Hamilton] was leading a line of cars on an out lap – in order, cars six [Latifi], 31 [Ocon] and 7 [Raikkonen], plus others. On the approach to turn 11 [Parabolica], car six slowed (ref telemetry) in order to achieve a reasonable gap to car 44 in front. This caused car 31 to have to take avoiding action by moving to the left, which caused car 7 to have to brake and move.”
Final times for both cars from qualifying at Monza:
P7, Daniel 1:19.864
P12, Esteban 1:20.234 #RSspirit #ItalianGP pic.twitter.com/4vQzThYeTa— Renault F1 Team (@RenaultF1Team) September 5, 2020
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Ocon went on to qualify P12 for Sunday’s race and admitted that Q1 was “more racing than qualifying”.
“Q1 obviously was more racing than qualifying so that was not good,” he told reporters.
“With the new rule it’s tight for everyone on those delta times and we were trying to get a good gap from the car in front which is normal.
“Obviously Kimi was fighting and if he goes to the inside of me and passes me then both of our laps are ruined so I did what I had to do and kept the gap in front.”
Raikkonen agreed with Ocon by saying qualifying was more like a “race situation”. He will start from P14.
“It really depends where you end up, I did what I had to do and then we ended up so close to each other,” he explained.
“It’s not the first time and for sure it’s not going to be the last time that it becomes more like a race situation.”
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