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Esteban Ocon said his front wheel was “in the air” after unsighted contact with Fernando Alonso and that his team-mate “almost lost it” later round a hectic opening lap of the Dutch Grand Prix as well.
Alonso went round the outside at Turn 1 and held his car alongside Ocon’s exiting the corner, though he was not fully level and Ocon said he had no idea Alonso was there.
That led to Ocon moving across to the left to take the natural line into the Turn 2 sweeps, forcing Alonso to briefly dip two wheels onto the grass.
They made contact, Alonso’s front right to Ocon’s left rear, as Alonso backed out of it and Ocon ran deep through Turn 2, and were fortunate the accidental hit did not end more dramatically.
“At the time I was not understanding why I had my front wheel in the air, and why I locked up,” Ocon said.
“My car was not steering but basically Fernando was holding me up from behind, that’s what was happening.
“I didn’t know he was on that left side. We touched, which allowed him to also get the run on the outside of Turn 3.”
Alonso’s wide run through Turn 3 allowed him to attack the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz and Antonio Giovinazzi through the curves that run all the way down to Turn 7.
Sainz squeezed Giovinazzi approaching the Turn 5 left-hand kink, which forced the Alfa to back out and allowed Alonso to sweep past on the outside with Ocon in tow behind.
But what happened in the split-second moment that followed was initially missed as the external cameras switched from one behind the cars on the entry to Turn 6 to one looking back from Turn 7.
The camera facing back from Turn 7 captured a puff of smoke, which was the result of Giovinazzi trying and failing to avoid hitting the rear of Alonso as the Alpine fishtailed across in front of him.
A replay soon after, from Giovinazzi’s onboard, showed Alonso had an enormous snap through this right-hander while Ocon smashed over the inside kerb right behind.
“It was also quite close for both of us in the run up to when we overtook Giovinazzi on the outside of Turn 6 and entering Turn 7,” Ocon admitted.
“We both hit a bump and Fernando almost lost it, we were side by side.
“It was quite a fun battle!”
That was a second escape in half a lap for the two Alpines but Alonso was also lucky in a different way.
The Giovinazzi hit was the third time in six corners he sustained contact, having survived a hit on his right rear tyre from George Russell immediately after the initial Ocon incident.
“The plan was to go on the outside [at the start], because I was on the clean side of the grid, and I wanted to have a straight start with not much movement and try to go on the outside of Turn 1,” said Alonso.
“But Giovinazzi thought the same plan so he was on the outside and blocking a little bit my idea.
“After that I had to improvise a little bit into Turns 2 and 3, there were a lot of cars, I was even on the grass at one point, and then in Turn 3 I chose to run on the outside.
“I kept good momentum on exit. But Carlos was in the way so I had to brake the exit of Turn 3, he didn’t help.
“Then Giovinazzi and Carlos were fighting until Turn 7 and I could squeeze one position there.
“But I think I’d been hit by Esteban, by Russell in Turn 2 and by Giovinazzi in Turn 6. I had a very robust tyre and no puncture, so that was good.”
