F3: Ocon upset about Norisring penalty

Formula 3 European Championship leader Esteban Ocon says the drive-through penalty that wrecked his point-scoring chances in the second race at last weekend's Norisring round was unfair.

The Frenchman was running third when he was forced to serve the penalty, and had no chance of recovering into the points in the remaining laps available. His punishment was for an incident with Tom Blomqvist as they fought for second after the restart.

Ocon went down the inside of Blomqvist into the hairpin, but the Briton's bid to hang on around the outside ended with the two cars making contact on exit and Blomqvist being pushed into the wall. The safety car was called out again to recover Blomqvist's stricken car.

"It was definitely unfair. I passed him, then I took my normal line and I don't know where he tried to pass," Lotus F1 Junior Ocon said. "Clearly there was no space for him – it was a racing incident."

Blomqvist said: "At the end of the day he got a penalty, so the stewards obviously saw he was at fault.

"It's pretty tricky in that corner anyway, because you run out of room quickly, and by the time he came across I couldn't go anywhere. Other people were complaining about him earlier in the year, but it is what it is [Ocon had criticism from Felix Rosenqvist and Max Verstappen at Pau, and was warned for a dangerous maneuver in a battle with Verstappen at Spa, but had yet to receive any penalty this season].

"I was pretty gutted, but Esteban's obviously doing something right because he's leading the championship!"