‘F***ing idiot’: Fernando Alonso swiped by ex-teammate after scary crash

Fernando Alonso has been involved in a high speed crash at the Brazil Grand Prix with his ex-teammate labelled a “dirty” driver.

Esteban Ocon went into the wall. Photo: Sky Sports.

Esteban Ocon has taken an extraordinary swipe at Fernando Alonso after the former teammates crashed into each other at the Brazil Grand Prix on Sunday morning.

The French driver was fuming after he roared around a corner during qualifying for Sunday morning’s sprint race and smashed into Alonso’s Aston Martin which was in the middle of nowhere in the centre of the track.

With Alonso chugging along on a cool down lap in SQ1 at the Interlagos circuit, Ocon came through on his inside during a flying lap, but the Alpine driver clipped the left side of Alonso’s front wing, sending debris and sparks flying.

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Ocon came off worse and went spinning off the track into the wall.

The situation has boiled down to a heated debate about whether Alonso left enough space on his inside for Ocon — or if Ocon had been too greedy trying to stay on the racing line when Alonso was badly out of position.

Replays showed that the Alpine appeared to suffer oversteer going over the inside kerb. But he denied this when speaking to reporters after the race.

Ocon blamed Alonso, calling the Spaniard a “f***ing idiot” over his team’s radio.

Esteban Ocon went into the wall. Photo: Sky Sports.

Esteban Ocon's contact tore both cars apart. Photo: Sky Sports.

“It was a big one, it was a hard impact so I’m feeling a bit sore after that one,” he sad after getting out the car.

“It’s a difficult one to swallow because we were on for a good improvement on that lap and were going to go through to SQ2, but we found Fernando in the way.

“I heard people saying that I lost the car. It’s not true, we had corrections like that throughout the whole paddock. Even on Lando’s quickest lap, he had a correction there and ran wide like this.

“Fernando steered to the left in the middle of the corner, and didn’t leave enough space, and we collided in the end.”

Alonso said: “He went into me.

Fan's Angle to the Alonso Ocon Crash

What do you think, who was at fault here ?#F1#F1Sprint#BrazilianGPpic.twitter.com/JZUlgyNQih

— Desi Racing Co. (@DesiRacingco) November 4, 2023

“I haven’t seen the replay yet, but someone told me he lost the car apparently a little bit. One of those situations — wrong place, wrong moment.”

Ocon was ultimately cleared by medical staff and was permitted to race in the sprint race a couple of hours later.

Both Alpine and Aston Martin had their work cut out for them to fix the cars in such a short window before the race — but both drivers were able to take part — finishing 11th and 14th respectively.

The incident was investigated by FIA stewards, but no action was taken with neither driver found to be at fault.

🚨 No penalty for Esteban Ocon after making a mistake and wrecking Alonso's car.#BrazilianGP 🇧🇷 pic.twitter.com/wllZeKiDN6

— Matthew J. Thompson🇬🇧 (@realMJThompson) November 4, 2023

Reaction has been mixed, with Sky F1 guru Martin Brundle saying the incident appeared to be Ocon’s fault.

“The more I see it the more I think the majority of the incident was Esteban losing control of the car and having to scoop it up,” he said.

“He will say it was because Alonso’s car was ‘parked in the middle of the road’. Then I think there were some contributing circumstances from Fernando there: slow, didn’t really move that far right, and was sort of giving a bit of left-hand lock. But he was going around a left-hand corner.

“I’ll be surprised if anything more comes from that other than an unfortunate incident.”

🇫🇷Esteban Ocon, the most unsportsmanlike and dirty driver, has severely insulted Fernando Alonso.

🐭I hope that Ocon apologizes immediately to Fernando Alonso.

Someone like him cannot be allowed to insult a double world champion in such a way. #RespectForFernandopic.twitter.com/BBzJEaMtb5

— Matthew J. Thompson🇬🇧 (@realMJThompson) November 4, 2023

Meanwhile, Max Verstappen continued his winning habit with another well-measured victory for Red Bull in Sao Paulo.

The three-time world champion finished comfortably clear of McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Verstappen snatched the lead at the start and came home 4.287 seconds clear of pole-sitter Norris with Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez taking third ahead of George Russell of Mercedes and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Yuki Tsunoda was sixth for Alpha Tauri, scoring their first points for the Italian team, ahead of seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton in the second Mercedes and Carlos Ferrari in the second Ferrari, taking the final point for eighth.

It was Verstappen’s fourth sprint win of the season.

“Much better than last year,” he reported to his team at the finish. “It was important to get ahead at the start, but the launch wasn’t amazing.

“It’s a good start and we learned a lot for tomorrow.”