Esteban Ocon had a calamitous recovery. And the term is not overused for the driver of the Alpine team. Starting in ninth position on the grid for the Bahrain Grand Prix, the Frenchman completely missed out on his first race of the season on Sunday. A galley day, marked by three penalties inflicted by race marshals, and ended with a retirement.
The winner of the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix was first sanctioned for having advanced his car too far on the starting grid. A penalty of five seconds, but not carried out in full according to the race marshals. The 26-year-old Norman was sent back to the pits a second time to wait for ten seconds, the duration of his new sanction.
But on leaving the race, Esteban Ocon was reported speeding in the pit lane. An offense punishable by five new penalty seconds. In all, 20 seconds in sight for the Frenchman from Alpine, whose front wing was damaged after contact with Formula 1 driver Nico Hülkenberg. Too much headwind for the driver, who ended up throwing in the towel on the 44th lap on the Sakhir circuit.
“I don’t know why I was the only one to take this penalty”
“This is clearly not the race we were hoping for, he admitted to the microphone of Canal +. It’s a bit crazy that we had all these problems. I was further ahead than the other cars [au départ], but you have to know that you can’t see it. I am not the only car to be in front of the yellow line. There are at least three, from what I’ve looked at. I don’t know why I was the only one to take this penalty. We should have finished in the points with both cars. »
His teammate Pierre Gasly, who arrived in the offseason with the French team, scored his first points by finishing in ninth place. A great performance for the one who started his race in twentieth position.