Gasly fumes at Alpine intra-team clash in Monaco as Ocon takes to social media to apologise

Pierre Gasly has expressed his frustration over an incident that “should not happen” after he and Alpine team mate Esteban Ocon clashed on the opening lap of the Monaco Grand Prix.

Ocon was attempting a bold move on Gasly down the inside of the Portier corner when the pair banged wheels and the former then launched over the top of the latter’s car – leaving both with damage.

READ MORE: Ocon to take five-place grid drop at Canadian GP after dramatic first-lap clash with team mate Gasly in Monaco

While Gasly continued to eventually score his first point of the season in 10th, Ocon was forced to retire and later received a 10-second time penalty from the stewards, who felt he was “wholly to blame”.

Ocon, whose sanction will be converted into a five-place grid penalty for the next round in Canada, initially described the incident as “unfortunate” before taking to social media to apologise.

“Today’s incident was my fault, the gap was too small in the end and I apologise to the team on this one,” he said. “Hoping for a deserved points-finish for the team today.”

It left Gasly with mixed feelings, for on the one hand he topped up Alpine’s tally with another valuable point, but was also left to rue what might have been had the collision not occurred.

“Right now, I must say I’m very pleased and very relieved for the whole team,” Gasly began. “We knew Monaco was a place where there would be an opportunity, even if we struggled with the car since the start of the year.

READ MORE: Leclerc clinches long-awaited home win in Monaco ahead of Piastri and Sainz after early drama

“We managed to seize the opportunity yesterday with that first Q3 and it was important to capitalise on that, and that’s what we did.”

He then commented: “Unfortunately, it wasn’t as peaceful as we had planned. I don’t want to go into too much details, but these things should not happen.

“It was a clear instruction from the team on what to do, what we were supposed to do, and this wasn’t respected [by Ocon].

“I’m just glad we managed to get out of it with only some front wing damage and a couple of things, and luckily with the red flag we managed to repair it.”

Gasly was then informed of Ocon’s social media apology and was asked how the team will move on from the matter – and ensure something similar does not happen again.

READ MORE: Perez, Magnussen and Hulkenberg share contrasting views on start pile-up in Monaco

“That’s the most important,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure… We can’t afford as a team to risk to have both cars out [of the race].

“Potentially we could have maybe scored points with both cars. We’ll talk about it, I’m sure we’ll move on and find solutions in the future.”

Gasly’s point means Alpine have two for the season so far and sit ninth in the constructors’ standings, level with Williams – with rivals Kick Sauber now the only team yet to score.