DC: “I would have stopped Alpine battle sooner”

David Coulthard says he would have stopped the battle between Alpine drivers Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon in Jeddah sooner if he was team principal.

The two Alpine drivers’ battle was one of the most exciting elements of Sunday’s race in Saudi Arabia as Alonso and Ocon overtook each other.

In other teams, they may have been ordered to keep their position, but Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer confirmed he was happy to let the pair race until the instruction was finally given for Ocon to hold station.

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However, 13-time race winner Coulthard says he would have told them to stop fighting earlier if he had been in charge as that is not the way to achieve the fastest race.

“Interestingly, I was able to have a quick word with Otmar privately and say ‘were you okay with that?’,” Coulthard said on Channel 4.

“And he said ‘I’m fine with our guys racing early because it wasn’t costing us too much time’.

“Laterally though, it started to take away from the bigger picture of the race, but he’s more disappointed of course about Alonso’s car stopping on track.

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