Quote:
Originally Posted by jkoral
Regardless of how you feel, I found the following the best video the whole incident before and after, as seen by Ocon starting with his pit stop and both radio communication of Ocon and Verstappen:
https://streamable.com/fkpqj
As Ocon exits pits, he is shown blue flags with Hamilton behind. Ocon says on radio, blue flags are gone, he starts closing on Verstappen. He is told he can pass Verstappen if he wants.
Verstappen on radio says "I have this Force India behind me pushing."
"Understood," is the response from the RBR pit wall, "he’s out there on fresh supers."
Then look at the closing speed of Ocon on Verstappen. No F1 driver on the grid is going to slam on the brakes with that kind of closing speed just because he is the leader. He went well past him (or at least even) so Max knew he would be on the inside of the next corner. Did he think Ocon was going to disappear or drive off track?
In hindsight, when Force India told Ocon he can pass Verstappen if he wants, it should have been stressed to make it clean, he is the leader.
And I think RBR should have have amended their statement "Understood, he's out there on fresh supers -- let him go, Hamilton still x seconds behind, you're not racing Ocon" |
Thanks for this post and link, this clears up everything. I am now even more of the opinion that Max was at fault, and that he should have let Ocon by. He new that Ocon was on better tyres, and he obviously knew he was not racing him.
From Ocon's seat, I can't see that he did anything wrong. He went around the outside of T1, and at T2 he was on the inside, with absolutely nowhere to go. I would have done the same in his situation.