Esteban Ocon, Renault, Monza, 2020

Ocon cleared of impeding Raikkonen in qualifying

2020 Italian Grand Prix

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The stewards have cleared Esteban Ocon over his incident with Kimi Raikkonen in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix.

Raikkonen had to take avoiding action after Ocon changed lines in front of him towards the end of Q1. However the stewards ruled Ocon made that move in response to Nicholas Latifi changing lines in front of him. The Williams driver was reacting to Lewis Hamilton in front of him.

“The stewards concluded that what appeared to be erratic movement of cars was due to a combination of circumstances which they, and the two drivers present, agreed was probably unavoidable and was not dangerous,” said the stewards in a statement.

“Car 44 [Hamilton] was leading a line of cars on an out lap – in order, cars six [Latifi], 31 [Ocon] and 7 [Raikkonen], plus others. On the approach to turn 11 [Parabolica], car six slowed (ref telemetry) in order to achieve a reasonable gap to car 44 in front. This caused car 31 to have to take avoiding action by moving to the left, which caused car 7 to have to brake and move.”

Raikkonen was also heard complaining about Ocon’s driving later in the session, when both were on their flying laps. This was not the subject of the stewards’ investigation.

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2020 Italian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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22 comments on “Ocon cleared of impeding Raikkonen in qualifying”

  1. Massi and his men were seen leaving the Vatican earlier in the day, after swearing never to rule in favour of Kimi no matter what….

    1. …I’m not sure I understand why the Pope would have something against Kimi, aside from the fact that it’s likely that Kimi isn’t Catholic while Ocon is. Still makes no sense.

  2. I’m surprised there was no investigation on Ocon’s driving during the flying laps – that looked pretty dangerous.

    1. @rocketpanda Yes, quite close to meeting the definition of brake-checking.

      1. Except, you know, the braking part

    2. Why should he allow a slower car to get ahead while he is on flying lap? that looked Kimis fault more than anything else.

      1. @Chaitanya bc you dont block and weave in quali, i cant fathom how you people can defend Ocon here at all…

        1. YOU are not the faster car if you have to block and weave vs an alfa…

        2. The stewards let max get away with it every time he does it, they have no right to punish anyone else that drives dirty like that now

          1. haha, you found another reason to speak ill about max ;)

        3. How can you defend Kimi who has 20 years of F1 “experience” and yet took part in this slipstream farce? Why did he not leave the garage sooner like Mercs did? He has no right to accuse Ocon of blocking him when he himself was trying to trip Ocon on preparation lap and into turn 1? If anything actions of Kimi reminds me of marathi saying- चोराच्या उलट्या बोंबा(chorachya ultya bomba) meaning a thief demanding justice for theft done by him.

    3. Kimi shouldn’t have been that close in the first place. They were both on flying laps, Ocon was not supposed to let Kimi by.

    4. Indeed, clear blocking, not saying he had to be penalized but he took an unconventional line to block raikkonen. Ridiculous fia.

  3. The Monza stewards have all the balls of a eunuch. Yet another total cop out.

    1. Yes that looked way too obvious. I hope they realize that the new ‘let them race’ -credo is not meant for qualifying.

      1. quali is not a “race” period….

  4. Ocon was also blocking Kimi on out lap. Was waving and outbreaking Kimi multiple times on the back straight. This kindergarten should have been penalized.

    1. +1000

  5. “On the approach to turn 11 [Parabolica], car six slowed (ref telemetry) in order to achieve a reasonable gap to car 44 in front. This caused car 31 to have to take avoiding action by moving to the left, which caused car 7 to have to brake and move.”
    That’s just a lie. He has been doing it multiple times on entire back straight. And he was accelerating both times after blocking Kimi, getting closer to Williams. And there was no Hamilton around.

  6. record
    imgur.com/swtSz7R

  7. Raikkonen was also heard complaining about Ocon’s driving later in the session, when both were on their flying laps. This was not the subject of the stewards’ investigation.

    clearly that’s what should be investigated immediately, but what do I know

  8. That was disgusting blocking by Ocon on a fast lap, he is obviously losing time taking inside line in turn one, so his lap is ruined, and then he does a dangerous block at 200mph. How on earth was that part not investigated? I haven’t seen that behavior in years in qualifying and he got away with it. Appalling driving.

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