Alpine reacts to online 'abuse' towards drivers after Sprint clash

Alpine has reacted to a wave of hateful comments directed at Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon after the pair's clash in F1's Sprint event in Brazil, warning that it will "take action" against those disseminating abuse on its social media channels.

Ocon and Alonso fiercely battled wheel-to-wheel on the opening lap in Saturday's race, but two contacts ensued.

At Turn 4, Alonso ran wide and slid into the side of Ocon's car, and then further down the road as the two drivers approached the end of the first lap, Alonso clipped the back of his teammate's A522.

The Spaniard was forced to pit to change his front wing, which dropped him out of contention while Ocon consistently drifted lower.

The stewards took a dim view of the Alpine drivers' messy moves, but left both drivers off the hook for the first incident while Alonso was handed a five-second penalty for running into the back of his teammate on the main straight.

On the radio and immediately after the race, Alonso took aim at Ocon, insisting the run-ins weren't his first borderline tussle with Ocon this year.

"I have been very close to the wall this year on a few occasions - in Jeddah, and in Budapest I remember as well," he said.

"It seems that when we start too close, there is this - yeah - defending in races. It is the way it is, nothing we can do."

Alonso, who will test with his new team Aston Martin after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, also made clear that his tenure at Alpine can't end soon enough as far as he was concerned.

"One more race to go, next year is going to be a different year," he said. "He will have a different team-mate and the management will have a [new] driver, so it's going to be different. It's OK for me.

"I just want to go to Abu Dhabi and test the green car. So that's my main goal now."

• Read also: Alonso penalised for Ocon clash: 'Both drivers let the team down'

While Ocon chose to avoid a public spat with his soon-to-be ex-teammate, Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer expressed in no uncertain terms his displeasure with both his drivers.

However, on social media, exchanges between Alonso and Ocon fans got out of hand and led to a wave of abuse, threats and intimidations, the majority of which appeared directed at Alonso.

Late on Saturday, Alpine posted a message on its social media channels in which it denounced the "toxic" abuse spewed by the haters.

"Whatever happens on track, there is absolutely no excuse for hateful comments, abuse or toxicity to be directed towards our drivers, team members, fans or indeed anybody online," Alpine stated.

The French outfit went on to say that it counted "882 toxic comments, 162 of which were severely toxic".

"This is wholly unacceptable," it added. What we have seen today is, unfortunately, not an isolated incident. We continue to see hate and discrimination online, and as a team, will not tolerate this.

"We will take action against individuals or groups who produce or disseminate social media posts that contain or encourage online abuse of our drivers, team members, and fans."

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