Ocon on near-miss with Zhou: 'Thank god nothing happened!'

Esteban Ocon says stumbling upon a slow-moving Zhou Guanyu in qualifying at Silverstone was a hair-raising moment that could have had dramatic consequences for both drivers.

Changing track conditions led to a frantic opening segment in the Saturday afternoon session. Ocon was on a flyer when he powered into the high-speed Maggotts-Becketts-Chapel sequence and suddenly encountered Zhou's Alfa – which was on an out lap – on the outside of Becketts.

It was a close call for both drivers, especially given the still slightly damp track conditions in the corner.

"It was wet that bit," Ocon explained. "Zhou was on the left, I think, and I lost the rear of the car going through 11 there and they were just on the outside so it was quite on the limit.

"But thank God nothing happened."

• 2023 British Grand Prix - Qualifying results

The incident was noted by the stewards, but while they acknowledged that Zhou had impeded Ocon, they also conceded that the Chinese driver wasn't able to move out of the Alpine's way.

"Zhou explained that he had to go slow to avoid Hamilton in front of him and had to stay on the left side of the track because as he entered the turn he was passed on the right by Bottas and could not have moved off the line without causing an unsafe situation," said the stewards who took no further action on the matter.

In Q2, Ocon also had a moment on track with Lance Stroll, but the Alpine charger cited his encounter with a third driver as the reason for his failure to make the Q3 cut.

"I made a mistake on that one ^with Stroll], braked on the wet bit and went straight so that was a shame. But it’s not what prevented us from going into Q3," he recounted.

"The real issue was that Ferrari and Charles were on a two push-lap strategy," he added.

"We launched a lap just behind him – which would have been the case also if I didn’t try and overtake Lance at the end – so we were stuck for half of the lap.

"I lost half a second in that start of the lap. Charles eventually let me by the middle of the lap and from there on I was able to start gradually improving.

"But I missed Q3 by two tenths and a half or something, and we had clearly more than half a second in hand.

"So it’s difficult to swallow today that one, but we are quicker than what we’ve shown and we should be able to recover tomorrow."

Ocon will launch his British Grand Prix on Sunday from P12 on the grid, two places behind his Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly who will start 10th.

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