It appears to very much be advantage McLaren in the fight against Alpine for fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, with the French side’s drivers appearing more intent on battling each other rather than the Woking-based outfit.
Fernando Alonso’s and Esteban Ocon’s relationship has been a heated one at times, with the water having finally boiled over at the Brazilian Grand Prix following a costly collision between the two.
The pair have come close to contact on a concerning number of occasions this season alone, with the Brazilian sprint race having finally seen impact between the two.
On the opening lap of the sprint, Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer would’ve presumably had his eyes closed after the pair initially almost made contact on the exit of Turn Four.
READ: ‘Drawn a line’: Ted Kravitz breaks silence on Max Verstappen tensions
As they approached the corner, Ocon dived down the inside of his experienced team-mate, which resulted in the pair being side-by-side through the bend.
On the exit of the corner Alonso was left with minimal room, resulting in the double World Champion driving over the kerbs.
The rear of Alonso’s A522 then massively stepped out of line, as a result of Alonso getting onto the throttle too quickly or as a result of what could’ve been a damp surface following rain during the weekend.
Either way, he had to quickly correct the trajectory of his Alpine, which was set to go straight into the side of Ocon.
Whilst the pair avoided contact on this occasion, they finally collided at the end of the lap down the start/finish straight.
Alonso closed rapidly on Ocon due to a beautiful tow; however, the Spaniard failed to pull-out of the slipstream fast enough, resulting in his front-wing making contact with Ocon’s right-rear tyre.
Unsurprisingly, the collision resulted in damage to Alonso’s front-wing, where he was quick to slam his team-mate over the radio.
He remained frustrated with his team-mate’s actions after the race, although, it was Alonso that the FIA judged at fault for the impact.
The Spaniard was awarded a five-place grid penalty and two penalty points for causing the collision, which will see him start the race on Sunday in 18th.
Before the penalty was announced, Alonso admitted that the contact was “far from ideal”, especially as his “pace was very good”.
“(It’s) far from ideal when you touch on the first lap of the sprint race because it’s too short to come back,” Alonso said.
“On a positive side, the pace was very good today, close to the leaders actually. P15 we start tomorrow and if we have this pace. We can score points tomorrow.”
The Spaniard went onto add that it’s “over finally” after Brazil and Abu Dhabi, with Alonso seemingly ready to switch to Aston Martin next season.
“No, not really,” Alonso replied after being asked if he’d spoken to Ocon.
READ: ‘Seb was the first one’: Lewis Hamilton hails Sebastian Vettel for gesture
“I don’t need to. It’s one more race and then it’s over finally.
“It was very close to the wall in Jeddah, close to the wall in Budapest, today in Turn 4, now here.
“It’s the way these things are. Sometimes it’s very competitive inside the team.”