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Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer sees no reason to stop Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon battling each other from the start.

The French outfit soaked up plenty of the early TV coverage in Saudi Arabia as their drivers Alonso and Ocon went back and forth in a thrilling scrap over several laps.

Eventually Alpine pulled the plug by instructing Ocon to hold position, which dropped him into the clutches of Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas.

Ocon nonetheless went on to finish P6, Bottas being forced into retirement with an engine issue, while if Alonso had not also met the same fate then Szafnauer believes the Spaniard would have followed Ocon across the line in P7.

So even though some questioned Alpine’s decision not to have intervened earlier, there will be no order applied to the drivers to stop them from battling each other from the get-go.

“They did exactly what we talked about before the race. And it was good for everybody. As it turned out, had Fernando not stopped on track we would have been sixth and seventh,” said Szafnauer.

“And we would have given the fans, and we did give the fans, a bit of a