Formula 1's latest new race winner Esteban Ocon said he'd been having no problems working with his Alpine F1 team mate Fernando Alonso since the two--time former champion arrives at Enstone at the start of the year.
Alonso has been depicted in the past as a difficult driver to work alongside, but Ocon insisted that this was far from his own experience since the pair started collaborating in January.
"I had a lot of things coming from many different people, warning me and telling me what they heard from the outside and all that," he told the media last week after his maiden F1 win in Hungary. "But it has to be said, I don't have any of those issues.
"The team the atmosphere is great and we are working all together, sharing information as we need to," he continued. "I'm glad to be to be working with Fernando, I think we have a good relationship and it's been going great."
Alonso played a key role in helping Ocon take his win last week, holding up a charging Lewis Hamilton for long enough to ensure that the Mercedes ran out of time before being able to challenge for the lead.
Ocon said that Alonso had been "fighting like a lion" and that as a result "that probably contributed also to giving us a gap, giving us a bit of a breather.
"Hopefully it's the first win of many for us and hopefully we can share a podium in a short time," he added.
"Okay, we're not fighting for one and two in the world championship so maybe it would be different," commented Ocon. "But now, there haven't been any of those [conflicts]".
Famously, Alonso clashed with Hamilton when the pair were team mates at McLaren in Hamilton's rookie season at 2007.
However the pair have since made up and are good friends, and Alonso says the clash was more to do with how the team had managed them during their year together at Woking.
“Lewis came into F1 like a tsunami with all his talent and abilities and results, immediately [got] results," he told Sky Sports F1 this week. "That was intense and also challenging for everybody.
“Looking back -and I think Lewis will think the same - we had no issues between us. We had a very tough competition, but fair. Honestly I think - and him as well - the team didn’t handle the situation [very well].
“I don’t want to blame a particular name but as a team and as a management, we were too young, too ambitious and no one guided us," he explained.
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