Ocon Says He Can't 'Catch A Break' Following Verstappen Qualifying Incident

Sunday, 19 November 2023 at 04:00

Alpine driver Esteban Ocon got knocked out early of the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying following the Q1 incident with Max Verstappen.

Esteban Ocon is surely disappointed after being eliminated in Q1 and watching his teammate Pierre Gasly score a P5 during Qualifying at Las Vegas Strip Circuit.

Alpine F1 cars apparently didn't lack speed in today's qualification, so you might ask what happened to Ocon to finish only in P17.

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The Frenchman had an incident with Red Bull's Max Verstappen going into turn one for the final flying lap of the Q1. He overtook Verstappen on the straight right before the first turn, destroying the Dutchman's chances for a great lap.

The three-time World Champion could not let that slide and sent it down the inside on the Alpine of Esteban Ocon into turn one, which in return destroyed Ocon's chances for a lap time improvement.

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Here is more context to the Ocon-Verstappen moment in Q1 Ocon overtook Max before Max overtook him, which ruined both their laps #F1 #LasVegasGP

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The Dutchman called the Alpine driver "stupid idiot" on the team radio shortly after. As quoted by PlanetF1, the 27-year-old reacted to his Q1 knockout saying:

"Yeah, we don’t seem to catch a break this season really. We always seem to be on the wrong end of things, you know, if it’s for penalties, incidents on track, collisions, whatever it is – we always seem to struggle and to be hurt by all of these things."

Ocon also said his lap time would "easily" be enough to get through to Q2 had it not been for his incident: "Don’t really know what to say. Looking at the data, yes, we were going to be easily through."

The Alpine driver seems to be a magnet to on-track incidents this season. Some recent instances include hitting a manhole cover in FP1, colliding with Fernando Alonso in Sao Paulo, or colliding with Oscar Piastri in Austin. The Frenchman concluded:

"So that’s how it is. Tomorrow, we have some good straight-line speed. Hopefully, we can use that, and hopefully we can be catching back up the order and being in the points."