Esteban Ocon has been taken to a medical centre after the first lap incident with Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly and AlphaTauri driver Daniel Ricciardo at the Hungarian GP. The rear of Ocon's car was high in the air before coming down crashing on his teammate's rear wing. This apparently also cracked up his seat in the cockpit.
This is rather a rare scenario, and hence, he has been taken to a medical centre, as revealed by Sky Sports presenter and F1 commentator, David Croft.
The start of the race was a deja vu to the 2021 edition of this Grand Prix, as contact into turn 1 triggered a chain reaction, taking out both Alpines.
Guanyu Zhou, who started his career-best P5, had an anti-stall in his car when the lights went out. Anti-stall is row revs in the engine, making his car engage the clutch automatically. Hence, he lost places at the very start.
He then had a late braking scenario at turn 1, hitting Daniel Ricciardo's AlphaTauri from behind. This sent the latter into the Alpine of Esteban Ocon, who, at the moment, was being overtaken by his teammate Pierre Gasly from the outside.
The impact sent Ocon's rear in the air, coming down, thrashing his teammate's rear wing. Both cars had to forcibly retire right after this in the pits.
According to recent information, Esteban Ocon has been deemed safe post his checkup.
How will Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly's DNF affect Alpine in the standings?
The Alpine crew aim to be one of the top teams on the grid sooner or later in the championship. They are struggling as of now, though. The 2022 season was well enough for the team, battling McLaren and eventually beating them in the standings. However, things have gone south for them this season.
McLaren are ahead of them in the standings, and since Aston Martin has given themselves such a massive lead, Alpine has dropped down to sixth. On top of this, McLaren, too, has had a massive upgrade and has been on the podium for two races in a row, with both cars in the top five.
As high as Alpine is aiming to be in the championship, this crash between Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly is not helping. There have been multiple retirements from the drivers this season, and they are losing behind the championship.