After a long wait, F1 is finally here, but the first outing was a forgettable one for Alpine’s Esteban Ocon. The misery for the Frenchman began from the very start as he positioned his car outside the prescribed limits, resulting in a penalty. Then, he failed to serve that penalty as per the procedure which saw him take another one. And then just when he thought things couldn’t get worse, the Stewards found him speeding in the pitlane and penalized him again. Fans felt bad for him but couldn’t stop themselves from starting a meme fest on the internet.

While Red Bull continued their dominant run from last year, the first race of the season did not fail to deliver on the hype. Seasoned campaigner Fernando Alonso had much to do to contribute to that. The 41-year-old, after a very long time, once again showed the world that he wasn’t done and dusted, taking home P3 after battling the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz.

Fans take swipes with jokes and memes as Esteban Ocon registers his name in unwanted record book

The failure to park the car in the prescribed spot saw Esteban take a 5-second penalty. As he was serving the stop-and-go penalty, one of the mechanics started working on the car after 4.6 seconds, resulting in a penalty of 10 seconds. Later, the Frenchman was found speeding in the pitlane by just 0.1 kph after which the Stewards handed him another 10-second penalty. To make matters worse, he bowed out of the race on Lap 41 owing to a mechanical issue. The three penalties in a single race saw him register his name alongside Pastor Maldonado, who, 8 years ago, became the first driver found to be in infringement thrice in a single race.

Reacting to the forgettable day in a post-race interview, as quoted by Sky Sports, Ocon said, “We were too forward on the grid spot – it was very clear. I don’t want to go into details, but usually we are very good on all these operational things.”

Have a look at how fans reacted to the whole debacle.

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Some fans praised Esteban’s teammate Pierre Gasly for managing to score points despite starting the race from the back of the grid.

Two fans had a hilarious conversation where one user inadvertently brought in Ocon’s slew of penalties.

Some fans contemplated who had a worse day, Estie or McLaren’s Lando Norris.

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Given how Alpine is nowhere near competitive as they were last year, they certainly need to avoid such mistakes in the future. Also, the heroic show Gasly put up yesterday will have to become a regular spectacle if they are to compete to stay on top of the midfield.