Fernando Alonso fires Esteban Ocon/Alpine jab: ‘Free practice is their moment’

Fernando Alonso let out a not-so-thinly veiled dig at his former team and team-mate after he was blocked in FP2 of the Miami Grand Prix.

Alonso departed Alpine at the end of last year and it appears there is not much love lost between the Spaniard and his former colleagues.

After his ex-team-mate Esteban Ocon blocked Alonso while he was on a flying lap, the Aston Martin man saw the funny side of it.

Alonso, who so far has three podiums to his name this year, laughed before suggesting that “free practice is their moment.”

“The Alpines are fighting the free practice!” Alonso told his race engineer Chris Cronin who replied “that’s a joke. You were on a flying lap and Ocon didn’t get out of the way.”

Alonso was not too disturbed though, simply commenting “yeah copy but the free practice is their moment so it’s good.”

Despite having first raced with the Enstone outfit in 2003, there was a breakdown in the relationship between the two parties last year as Alonso felt disrespected and sought a move away.

Wanting a two-year extension to his current contract, Alpine were only offering a single year so Alonso made the switch to Aston Martin and it has proved a very smart move.

Alpine meanwhile find themselves in P6 in the Constructors’ standings with just eight points after a stumbling start to the season.

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Speaking ahead of the race in Miami, team boss Otmar Szafnauer said the French outfit “just need a normal weekend.”

“In Baku we only had three laps really before we went into parc fermé conditions so we had no chance at all to work on the car and it showed,” he told F1.com.

“So it’s important for us to get some running in and try different ride heights and spring rates and everything you do on a Friday.

“[The drivers are] not 100% happy with the car so there’s a little bit more to come and we’ll work on that between now and free practice three. We just need a normal weekend.”