Ocon: Always 'a privilege' to race with Alonso

Esteban Ocon was all smiles after finishing sixth in Sunday's Saudi Arabian GP, a race marked by his fierce fight in the event's early stages with Alpine teammate Fernando Alonso.

The pair battled aggressively for the better part of ten laps, swapping positions and running wheel-to-wheel as Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer looked on with apprehension but without interfering.

The fierce tussle was eventually broken up by Alfa's Valtteri Bottas who had caught up with the dueling duo and inserted himself between the two Alpines.

"Of course, when you fight it’s the same as in karting, you lose time," said Ocon.

"It’s normal, but our position at the time on a one-stop race. Track position is quite important and we are allowed to race by the team."

Alonso had gained the upper hand against his teammate, but there would be no points for the Spaniard at the end of the day, his race grinding to a halt 15 laps from the checkered flag following an engine issue.

"It’s always a privilege to race with Fernando so makes me smile," added Ocon.

"In the end you always want to make your quickest laptime overall in the race. In a one-stop, it’s pretty important. But track position is also quite important.

"It’s going to be close all year. Let’s see how it will go. But we race fair and as the team decided for us to race, so there is no drama."

• Read also: Gasly was 'screaming' in agony during Saudi Arabian GP

On the other side of the Alpine garage, queried on the battle with his teammate, Alonso claimed that "everything was fine" although the Spaniard's demeanor appeared to suggest otherwise.

"Of course, you need to give extra margin but everything was fine," said Alonso.

"We battled in Bahrain already in the first stint, even though we had a different strategy there.

"Here we had the same strategy but for whatever reason my car felt faster this weekend in qualifying and the race so I could overtake and pull away a little bit.

"The main threat was Bottas. It was not easy to keep him behind."

Watching two pink cars fiercely duke it out wheel-to-wheel was a familiar sight for Szafnauer. But while the on-track tussle costed time, the Alpine team boss wasn't inclined to break up the party.

"It was fine, it was clean," said Szafnauer, quoted by The Race. "It’s what the fans want to see. And we told them at the beginning, we’ll allow them to race.

"We were losing a little bit more time than anticipated. That’s a little bit because of the track specific stuff here and a little bit because the cars can follow each other easier now, which was the aim of the new regulations.

"And because of it, if you can follow easier, you can start overtaking each other one lap after the next."

The American admitted however that he might feel compelled in the future to intrude on an inner-team battle if the squabbling consumes too much time.

"That’s exactly the type of thing we have to look at – when do we tell them to not start overtaking each other because it does cost you time?" he said.

"That is exactly the trade-off."

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