Pierre Gasly says his battle with Esteban Ocon in the Austrian GP was “intense” and that it is “never easy” to race his Alpine teammate. Following their recent clash in Monaco, the pair ran wheel-to-wheel on several occasions at the Red Bull Ring.
At one stage after being forced wide at Turn 3 Gasly asked the team, “What the f**k? What was that?”, saying that he’d been run off the track by Ocon.
Having later made a pass and gained the upper hand, Gasly went on to finish 10th. The Frenchman logged his fourth score in four starts, while Ocon took 12th place.
“It was intense,” said Gasly when asked about the battle. “Some will say a bit too much. I’m sure on the pit wall, they didn’t really like the fact that I had to run wide. Because I wasn’t really given any space.
“But yeah, never easy, right? So at the end of the day, up to me to find another way to get past him, and that’s what I did. But I was expecting slightly more space from my teammate.”
Asked if the rules of engagement were clear, he said:
“I think it was as clear as it could be before the race. But you know, I can only control what happens in my car. I can’t control his car. And yeah, it is what it is.
“This is something we’ll have to discuss between us, but we’ve already discussed, and we’ll see if there’s anything else we can do.”
Ocon meanwhile simply noted that “it was hard and fair racing.”
Gasly: Austria was another good race
Despite the frustrations with his teammate, Gasly said Austria was a positive race for him.
“Apart from that, it was a good race,” he said.
“Very strong lap one. I didn’t have the best start, so we’ll review that. But then, after a strong lap one, I think we managed pretty well the whole race with the tyre we had.
“We finished on the medium. So it felt like the tyres were quite gone at the end, but I tried to get close to Daniel [Ricciardo] and get past him.
“Unfortunately, we got into the DRS of [Kevin] Magnussen, so I could not make a move.
“But I think looking at the positives, it’s our fourth race in the points. Monaco, Canada, Barcelona, here, very different tracks, but we seem to be finding that consistency, which is important, and we’ve got to keep that momentum going.
“We know we have some upgrades coming later on in the year, so I’m just pleased with the small steps forward we’re making.”
