Ocon livid over stewards' call on clash with Hamilton

Esteban Ocon says his clash with Lewis Hamilton in the Monaco Grand Prix was a racing incident and should not have been sanctioned with a five-second penalty that dropped him out of the points.

The pair were battling for eighth in the first part of the race after Hamilton, running on faster intermediate tyres, had caught up with the Alpine driver who was still on extreme wets.

Hamilton moved to the inside of the Frenchman on the approach to Ste Devote, but Ocon took his line into the corner, the Alpine's right-rear wheel tagging the Mercedes' front wing.

The Briton immediately radioed in to tell his team that Ocon had "just turned in on me".

The stewards agreed with the seven-time world champion's view, stating that there was a "significant portion" of Hamilton's car alongside Ocon as they entered Ste Devote.

An unhappy Ocon was hit with a five-second penalty that dropped him from P9 at the checkered flag to P12 in the race's final standings.

"I'm very frustrated, because the opinion of everyone obviously is another one compared to what we got," Ocon said.

"Looking at the images and going to see the stewards as well, they said that if it was last year, it would have been a racing incident. This year, it is not a racing incident.

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"Apparently we all agree that, in the GPDA, as soon as there is a front wing next to a tyre there should be space. But I don't remember when this has been agreed."

"We tried hard, we raced hard, obviously there was a bit of contact, but that should be a racing incident. It's a bit frustrating."

Fernando Alonso's seventh-place finish was a consolation for Alpine, but team boss Otmar Szafnauer vowed to put Ocon's setback in the rearview mirror.

"Both drivers drove good races today to cross the line in seventh and ninth, respectively, which is probably where we deserved to be in today’s race," said Szafnauer.

"Esteban’s time penalty is a tough one as it was probably 50-50, so we won’t dwell too much on it and we’ll keep our heads down and look ahead to the next one."

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