Alpine boss, Bruno Famin has defended the team's decision to order Pierre Gasly to yield to his teammate, Esteban Ocon on the final lap of the race.

Starting 12th (Gasly) and 14th (Ocon), the latter took the opportunity to pit under the Safety Car that followed the first lap clashes, rejoining in 16th.

The pair gradually worked their way up the order as the first round of pit stops got underway, Gasly eventually stopping on Lap 18 - rejoining in 15th - while Ocon made what was now essentially his only stop on Lap 28.

By this time Gasly was 8th and Ocon 12th.

Gasly was still 8th when he made his second stop on Lap 34, while Ocon had worked his way up to 10th.

Passing Gasly during his stop, Ocon held on to 9th until Lap 46 when he was passed by his teammate on his fresher rubber, the team feeling that this would allow him a better chance of overhauling Fernando Alonso ahead.

However, as they began the final lap, with Gasly having failed to pass Alonso, Gasly was ordered to yield to his teammate.

"Can we swap back around please?" urged his engineer, Karel Loos.

"Wait, what the ****, mate?" Gasly responded. "You're kidding me. What are you saying? I was faster. I'm on fresher rubber. I would've overtaken him anyway."

"Swap around please," came the order. "We don't have to say anything now, we'll discuss it after."

"Are you serious?" asked Gasly. "Are you being serious? I started in front, I was in front the whole race, you let him undercut me."

"I'm not joking," insisted Loos, "instructions from the pit wall. Let's do it next time around please, Turn 16."

"Thank you," replied Gasly. "Complete joke!"

"It was agreed that they would undercut the leading car, and they would let me pass so we don't lose time." Gasly told the media at race end.

"It was never said that we would need to invert again, because I was always in front," he added, clearly unhappy. "For the team it's the same, ninth and tenth, but it's definitely not something I expected, and not really something I understand.

"It wasn't discussed before the race," he insisted. "It was clear that with the strategy they had planned, at some point Esteban would undercut me. But my race was faster, I would have overtaken him anyway on the race track because I had fresher tyres.

"This was part of the strategy that was done before the race," he added. "Until then it was similar, it was just on the last lap. But anyway, it's something we'll talk over together.

"We have some things to review to see what we can do better for next time. In the end, it's a double points finish for the team and that's the most important thing.

"I don't understand the team's decision, but I respected it and let Esteban pass. In the end it's three points for the team and that's what we will have to look at. I'm sure the next time around Esteban will play it fair.

"It was good teamwork in an attempt to grab more points as a team," said Ocon, "and in the end, we probably maximised what we had.

"We have many things to learn and to discuss," he admitted.

"Towards the end of the race, we looked to capitalise on our tyre advantage and pace from Pierre by targeting eighth place," explained team boss, Bruno Famin.

"The opportunity was a close one and we decided to swap positions on track with a view for maximising the team result by giving Pierre the chance to chase eighth place.

"In the end we ran out of laps and pace and we made the decision to swap the drivers back. Making these calls is never easy. However all decisions are taken with the best interest of the team first and foremost."

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