Fernando Alonso & Co. Snatch Away Esteban Ocon’s Silver Lining From the Austrian GP With Unprecedented Protest

Records are meant to be broken. But no one would want their name against the record Alpine driver Esteban Ocon broke during the Austrian GP. If you thought the Austrian GP was chaotic with penalties galore, it got worse after the race. Tracks limits were a huge problem during the weekend in Austria. Ad during the main race, almost half the grid received penalties for exceeding track limits. But Esteban Ocon wasn’t one of them or so it seemed for a few hours!

After a tough race with on-track battles and penalties that the FIA seemed to be doling out to everyone, Ocon finished in P12. But his silver lining was that he didn’t receive any penalties for exceeding track limits. Shortly after the end of the 71 laps, Aston Martin lodged a protest against the provisional classification, arguing that many drivers didn’t receive sufficient penalties. And it rained on Ocon’s parade.

Esteban Ocon suffered the most after Aston Martin’s protest

At the Bahrain GP this year, Ocon set the record for the most driving penalties received in one race. He got a five-second one for being out of position on the starting grid. A ten-second one was added for not serving the penalty correctly. And a final five-second one was added for exceeding the pit lane speed limit. Three driving penalties in one race. He wouldn’t have wanted to beat his own record, but he did at the Austrian GP. 

The Frenchman didn’t have the best race weekend and failed to continue his four-race point-scoring streak after finishing in twelfth. After the race, his engineer told him on his radio, “Not the result we wanted, but well done anyway. It was a very mixed race with an awful lot of penalties for track limits up and down the field.” Ocon replied, “Yeah, not to us. We didn’t get one.” His engineer praised him for managing the race well, but Esteban spoke too soon.

After Aston’s protest, the FIA reviewed race footage and handed out 12 additional penalties for track limits after the race, four of which were Ocon’s. He received a five-second post-race penalty for exceeding limits four times and an additional ten seconds for exceeding them for a fifth time—adding up to 15 seconds. But it didn’t end there because he did this twice. So, in effect, he got four penalties that added up to 30 seconds.

Read More: Conceding Defeat to Esteban Ocon by a 0.009 Second Margin, George Russell Gives a 2-Worded Response After The Intense Battle

In the process, he broke his own record of three driving penalties and also got demoted to P14. While he suffered the consequences of his former team’s protest, his former teammate benefitted.

Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin’s weekend got better

Fernando Alonso crossed the line in P6 behind Lando Norris in P5. Ahead of them, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz finished in P4, but after Aston’s protest, the position didn’t stick. The Spaniard had already received a five-second penalty during the race for exceeding track limits which contributed to him not finishing on the podium. But after the race, the FIA handed him a ten-second penalty, dropping him down to P6, behind Norris and Alonso. 

Alonso wasn’t the only Aston Martin driver who got a better result because of the team’s protest. Lance Stroll, who crossed the line in P10, got promoted to P9 after Ocon’s teammate, Pierre Gasly, also received a ten-second penalty. Alpine must sure not like Aston Martin right now.

Do you think it was right for the FIA to hand out post-race penalties?

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