Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly battled for Alpine supremacy during the Austrian GP. The Alpine duo tried everything to hold position and elbow each other, and their racecraft impressed the two-time world champion, Fernando Alonso, who just had one word to sum it up.
Max Verstappen started from the pole position, followed by Lando Norris and George Russell from P2 and P3, respectively. Ocon started the race from P10, whereas his teammate did it from P13. Alonso, who did not have a good qualifying on Saturday, started from P15.
The race started with Verstappen leading the race from Norris and Russell. However, Alpine had all the business down in P11 when Ocon had to defend his place from Alonso and Gasly. Ocon was running in P11, followed by Alonso and Gasly in P12 and P13, respectively.
Lap 35 of 71 saw Gasly use the slipstream and DRS to overtake the Aston Martin driver and come side-by-side with his teammate. Anticipating the danger, Ocon pushed Gasly wide and kept his position. In the process, the #31 driver managed to keep his place and put Gasly at bay in P12. Alonso, who was racing behind them in seven-tenth of a seven-tenth-of-a-second gap, witnessed the two Alpine's wheel-to-wheel tussles.
Reacting to this, he said on the radio,
"Wow!"
Formula 1 was in Austria for the 11th round of the 2024 season. After Friday's practice, Sprint qualifying, and Saturday's Sprint, and race qualifying, Sunday rolled out the business end of the race weekend. The race saw Pierre Gasly finish the race in points with P10, Esteban Ocon in P12, and Fernando Alonso took the checkered flag in P18.
Pierre Gasly took a cheeky dig at Esteban Ocon
As both Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon raced hard at the 2024 Austrian GP race, there was no love lost between each other. While each had their race craft to show for, Gasly made sure he took a dig at his teammate.
As the former Red Bull man passed his teammate during one of many wheel-to-wheel battles, the former had a message for Ocon. He said on the radio,
"Ciao!"
Gasly arrived at Alpine as a replacement for Fernando Alonso in 2023 and formed an all-French line-up in a French team. However, the duo could not settle amicably as Esteban Ocon decided to leave the Enstone-based team at the end of this season.