F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Ocon gets penalty-free power unit change after fire

Alpine has been forced to replace Esteban Ocon's power unit for Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix but there will be no penalty for the Frenchman as the new unit was already part of his pool of hardware.

Ocon endured an eventful Sprint event on Saturday at Interlagos marked by a double clash with teammate Fernando Alonso that ruined his race.

But as he returned to the pits after the 24-lap race, a fuel leak set his Alpine ablaze.

While the fire was quickly extinguished by the marshals, it had significantly damaged the A522's engine and several of its components.

"As a result of the fuel leak on Esteban’s car after Saturday’s sprint qualifying [race] and the subsequent damage caused by the fire, the team has changed his PU for today’s race from his pool," said Alpine in a statement.

"This means he will not take a grid penalty and will start today’s race from 17th place. The damaged parts on the chassis have also been replaced."

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Michael Delaney

Recent Posts

Verstappen "couldn’t have really wished for more" in qualifying

Max Verstappen could not have have been happier after taking pole position for the 2024…

25 mins ago

Alonso credits P3 in Chinese GP qualifying to parc fermé changes

Fernando Alonso says set-up changes ahead of qualifying allowed him to extract a bit more…

1 hour ago

Hamilton blames set-up experiment for qualifying disaster

Saturday proved be a day of extremes for Lewis Hamilton, who produced his best result…

2 hours ago

Chinese GP: Dominant Verstappen delivers 100th Red Bull pole

Red Bull secured another 1-2 lock-out in qualifying, with Max Verstappen taking the team's 100th…

3 hours ago

2024 Chinese Grand Prix - Qualifying results

Full results from qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai, round 5 of the…

3 hours ago

Alonso handed penalty by stewards for Sprint clash with Sainz

Fernando Alonso’s was hit with a 10-second penalty by the Chinese GP stewards after Saturday’s…

4 hours ago