Ocon’s seat broke into "two parts" during dramatic airborne crash
The Alpine driver was involved in an opening-lap incident involving teammate Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu.
After a sluggish getaway, Zhou rammed Ricciardo, who was helpless to avoid hitting into the back of Ocon, with the Frenchman sent airborne before landing on Gasly’s car in the Turn 1 braking zone.
Both Alpine drivers were forced into retirement, while Zhou was hit with a five-second penalty for causing the collision.
“We just suffered a strike into Turn 1. It’s just a mistake from Zhou in the back. That led us to a massive hit,” explained Ocon.
“I took off by, I don’t know, three metres, four metres on the rear wheels. When I landed, there was a big hit.
"My seat broke in pieces, in two parts. So that tells how much the impact was.
“Unfortunately, both cars were out after that. Those are the consequences from racing at the back. People tend to take more risk. We knew it and we suffered from it today.
“We’re going to be racing next week and that’s the good thing because we can forget quickly this weekend.”
Ocon did not need to visit the medical centre but was treated in the physio room afterwards.
