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Perez and Ocon cleared over FP1 collision
Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon have agreed neither driver was at fault for their collision in first practice at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, with both escaping punishment.
Television pictures picked up Perez exiting Turn 5 with a damaged left-rear wheel, spinning and stopping with the tire popped off the broken rim. Ocon then crawled past the Red Bull before stopping a bit further along the track with damage to his front right, but no replays were available to show the contact due to technical issues.
Both drivers were summoned to the stewards over the incident -- that caused a red flag -- but agreed that it was simply a misunderstanding that wasn’t helped by the issues teams were having at Imola that meant timing data and radio communications were lacking.
“Ocon slowed before Turn 5 in order to let Perez by, as well as moving entirely to the inside of the turn,” the stewards’ decision read. “Perez was on a fast lap. The two cars reached the apex at the same time, and just barely touched wheels.
“In the end, both drivers agreed in the hearing that it was an unfortunate miscommunication of timing between them, not helped by the fact that both drivers had limited or no communications with their teams at the time. Both drivers agreed that neither was at fault.”
The stewards opted to take no further action as a result.
Presented by:
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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