Perez 'ripped off my floor', says Force India team mate Ocon

There's been stormy times at Force India in the past few months, with team mates Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon clashing on and off the track. It looks like the Hungarian Grand Prix has added a little more fuel to the fire.

The pair came together on the exit of the first corner on lap 1 at the Hungaroring. Perez appeared to run into the side of Ocon, causing damage to both cars. In Perez case it was limited to the wing, but it was a little more serious for Ocon.

"It was a pretty messy start and that compromised my race," complained the French driver. "Sergio made contact with me in turn one, which caused some damage to my floor.

"I don’t know what Sergio did but he probably missed a bit his braking point and ripped off my floor."

Perez felt that there hadn't been anything amiss with the start, and that no one was to blame for the incident.

"I made a very good start, positioned my car well and that was very important for the final result," he explained.

"There was a bit of contact with my team mate, which damaged my front wing. Fortunately it didn’t change the balance of my car."

Force India's deputy team principal Bob Fernley was also keen to play down the incident.

“It was very minor, just a first-corner incident. One was leaning on the other a bit," he said. "They both came through with good results, so it’s not an issue. One of those things, so many cars going into that corner."

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Despite the contact, both cars were able to continue after the clash and made it to the end of the race in the top ten.

“I’ve been struggling a lot with the car, so I’m glad we went forwards and scored good points," said Perez, who finished in eighth.

"It wasn’t the busiest race for me because I spent most of the afternoon behind Sainz and Alonso," he continued. "We couldn’t make our way through during the pit stop window due to a slow stop."

"It could have been a bit worse," agreed Ocon, who was ninth at the chequered flag. "I was able to continue even though I lost some performance.

"The rest of the race was very clean and we were able to resist a lot of pressure from Stoffel, so I am happy with the end result

"In the end, we got another double points finish for the team," he added. "Which is great considering how difficult the weekend has been leading up to the race.

"I am happy with the end result. We kept our main rivals behind us today and it means we can go on holiday feeling happy.

"I’ve scored nearly 50 points in the first part of the season and we’ve got a healthy margin over the teams behind us.

"Now we can recharge our batteries and come back ready to score even more points in the second half of the year."

 
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