In the round-up: Esteban Ocon denies racing his team mate too hard during yesterday’s Austrian Grand Prix.
In brief
Ocon defends “hard and fair racing”
Pierre Gasly was unimpressed when Ocon forced him wide at turn three during yesterday’s race. “What was that?” he asked his team on the radio. “Why did he just push me off the track?”
Speaking after the race Ocon, who collided with Gasly earlier this year in Monaco, insisted his move has been “hard and fair racing.”
“Nothing really to comment,” he told the official F1 channel. “It was good racing.”
Gasly, who later passed Ocon and went on to finish two places ahead of him, was more restrained in his comments afterwards. “It was intense,” he said. “I mean, we’re Formula 1 drivers so you’ve got to race and that’s what we enjoy.
“Obviously it’s nice to have some space, but sometimes there’s no space, and then you’ve got to find other ways to make it through. I think I kept it clean on my side, managed to get a point out of it so that’s the most important.”
Verstappen cleared over pit lane incident
Max Verstappen collected one penalty in the Austrian Grand Prix but avoided a second earlier in the race when Lando Norris complained the Red Bull driver delayed his arrival in the pit box.
The stewards conceded “there is a possibility that car one [Verstappen] hindered car four [Norris] on its approach to the pit stop,” but chose to take no action. “Article 34.14 (a) specifies that a car is considered to be released in an unsafe manner if it could endanger pit lane personnel or another driver,” they noted. “This was not the case and therefore no further action is taken.”
Komatsu “speechless” at Haas result
Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu was thrilled by the team’s biggest points haul of the year so far in Austria. Nico Hulkenberg took sixth, two placed ahead of team mate Kevin Magnussen, moving the team up to seventh in the championship on 19 points.
“I’m just so happy for everyone in the team,” said Komatsu, who took charge at Haas at the beginning of this year. “Sometimes we get unlucky but today our execution was amazing.
“Nico and Kevin drove well, and pit stops were good, everything was great. I’m speechless, I’m just so happy for everyone to get this result and for Nico to beat Perez on merit, that’s a huge statement.”
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Stiff penalty for Marti
Pepe Marti received the equivalent of a 10-second stop-and-go penalty after yesterday’s Formula 2 feature as the stewards ruled his mandatory pit stop took place during a Virtual Safety Car period.
Although the stewards accepted Marti was “incredibly close” to Safety Car Line One at the pit lane entrance when the Virtual Safety Car period began and said they “understand why he did what he did”, they ruled his pit stop did not comply with the regulations.
His penalty was converted to a 30-second time penalty which dropped him from fourth place to 15th in the final result.
Antonelli apologises for stalling
Andrea Kimi Antonelli apologised to his team after stalling in his pit box during yesterday’s Formula 2 feature race.
“The race was looking good,” said the Mercedes junior driver. “The launch at the start was great as I finally found a system to get it right, and the pace on prime [tyres] was really good.
“I just made a mistake at the pit stop and that was pretty much it for my race. I’m sorry for the team, I’ll continue working to avoid the mistakes and keep moving forward.”
Antonelli has failed to score in the last four races and fallen from sixth to ninth in the championship.
Track limits still a problem in F3
The new track limits solution at turns nine and ten at the Red Bull Ring, which now features 1.5-metre wide kerbs, led to a significant reduction in penalties in Formula 1. However Formula 3 cars continued to fall foul of turns where the kerbs are wider.
A total of 64 track limits offences were registered during yesterday’s feature race. Of those, just three were registered at turn nine and none at ten. More than half occured at turn one, where 33 infringements were recorded, the rest at turns three and six.
Social media
Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
Spare a thought for the truckies about to set off on the thousand mile trek from Red Bull Ring to Silverstone, some 800 drivers from F1,F2,F3 and Porsches. Bon voyage to you all. See you at the other end
— Bob Constanduros (@BobConstanduros) June 30, 2024
|@Max33Verstappen‘s view on his collision with @LandoNorris after he rewatched footage of the incident he was given a 10-second time penalty for.#F1 #AustrianGP #RaceFans pic.twitter.com/R4xolN1uR1
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) June 30, 2024
Max is a dirty driver in combat. Always has been previously with Lewis and Leclerc but never accepts responsibility which is why he keeps doing it…! 😡😡
— TIM HARVEY (@timharvey7) June 30, 2024
Toto Wolff pointedly not blaming the driver he’s desperate to sign.#F1 #AustrianGP #RaceFans
— Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) June 30, 2024
4th GP podium. Nice trophy (and reminder of the track limits 😉) pic.twitter.com/ugPX9SYwky
— Oscar Piastri (@OscarPiastri) June 30, 2024
|@Max33Verstappen would have taken the bonus point for fastest lap after switching to soft tyres following his collision with @LandoNorris.
But @alo_oficial pitted from 17th, also fitted softs, beat Verstappen’s time by 0.025s, and ensured no one got the point.#F1 #AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/mAds5wTzq0
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) June 30, 2024
Damage for Bird! 😱
The @McLarenFE man picks up debris from Wehrlein’s machine, ruining his race. @Hankook_Sport #PortlandEPrix pic.twitter.com/lfubdEn0ry
— Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) June 30, 2024
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