Perez apologised but it's not over, says Ocon
Esteban Ocon says that his Force India teammate Sergio Perez apologised after their costly first lap clash in Singapore.
Photo by: Manuel Goria / Motorsport Images
But the Frenchman made it clear that what he described as a "terrible situation" won't be quickly forgotten.
Ocon was pushed into the wall on the exit of Turn 3 when he attempted to go round the outside of Perez, and the Mexican moved over on him.
The pair talked about the incident when Perez, who finished out of the points, returned to the Force India camp after the race.
"He apologised to me, in the room he said he apologised," Ocon told Motorsport.com. "But it's not because of that that everything's gone.
"The only thing I look at at the moment is that we come home with no points on a weekend where we should have been both in the points, getting strong results.
"We had the pace for it. And yeah, it's a terrible situation to be where we are now.
"That's all I can say, there's nothing else to comment about. No, it's not the same situation as last year, we've turned the page from there. And that's it really."
Regarding team boss Otmar Szafnauer's suggestion that the pair won't be allowed to race, he said: "I don't know what the team is going to decide.
"Obviously no one is happy with this situation – that's obvious. We'll see."
Perez was adamant that he didn't know that it was Ocon's car that he touched on the first lap.
"It was very unfortunate," he said. "As I'm picking up the power in Turn 3 I just get a contact from another car, on my front tyre. I did not even realise at the time that it was Esteban.
"As I got it through the radio I was quite sorry for the team, because I thought we were on to a great day today, with a lot of points."
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