Esteban Ocon’s release in Vegas

Esteban Ocon can finally breathe a sigh of relief. After a series of reliability issues with his car, the Normandy native was finally able to finish a race. And what a Grand Prix it was. Starting 17th on the grid, the Alpine driver was able to take advantage of the events of the race to climb up the leaderboard.

At the end of the 50 laps in Vegas, Esteban Ocon finishes just outside the podium, right ahead of Lance Stroll.

Nightmarish qualifications

Fate had decided to continue to strike Esteban Ocon on Saturday. During his first attempt in Q1, the Normand driver encountered a lot of traffic. While he managed to benefit from some slipstreaming, the large number of cars ultimately held him back. A few minutes later, as he rushed for one last attempt to improve his time, a turn of events completely disrupted his plans. Max Verstappen, who had been overtaken before Ocon’s outlap, suddenly dived into the first corner. In order to avoid contact, the Frenchman had to swerve, losing precious tenths of a second.

« The difference between him and me is that I had to do this lap because I had traffic on the first lap,” he declared at the end of the session. « And if I don’t do the second one, I would be eliminated. He has a lot of pace, so he can afford not to do his second lap. I didn’t have a choice, I had to go for it. The difference between Max and me is that he is in third place, and I am in 17th place. »

Esteban Ocon found himself forced to embark on a marathon to climb back up the rankings on Sunday, while his teammate Pierre Gasly secured the 4th fastest time in Q3.

Advantageous racing facts

Esteban Ocon had a successful start. Right from the beginning, the Alpine driver took the lead over the pack. During the safety car deployed in the 4th lap, the 27-year-old driver was positioned in 9th place. The medium tyres allowed him to display a good pace right from the start of the race. At the restart of the Grand Prix, he occupies the 8th position. With a very good pace and efficient tire management, Esteban Ocon extends his first stint for 21 laps.

The second safety regime, implemented on the 26th lap, will allow the tricolor car to move up to 6th position. The driver will engage in a series of overtakes, including a great move on his teammate Pierre Gasly on the 34th lap. This maneuver will greatly influence both his own race and that of his compatriot. « I was in the middle of a battle with Pierre when I heard “position”, so I continued doing what I was doing », described the driver who finishes the race 4th in an interview with Canal +. « I didn’t hear the “hold” before “position” (which means holding your positions). If the team had asked me to give back the place afterward, I would have done it without any problem. »

Finally, after Piastri, then in 4th place, returned to the pit to change tires, Esteban Ocon achieved and carefully maintained his second best result of the season. Since Singapore, we haven’t had much luck, declared the Alpine driver. Today, we were able to show that we still had the pace and that we were still doing things right. We just needed the planets to align, and today, that was the case. It’s pleasing. I think coming back from so far behind was unexpected, but today we did it.

Winning Strategy

Esteban Ocon had to wait to finally be blessed with reliability and strategies. In the last two races, he only managed to achieve a mere tenth place each time. While the beginning of the weekend did not foresee such a bright future, Alpine perfectly managed the strategy. The degradation was controlled, as well as the intense moments of the race.

“It was hot, but since FP2, we understood how to avoid degrading the tires early on, so we managed to implement that for the race,” said the Normand speaking to Canal +. “Throughout the race, we had fresher, newer tires than almost everyone else. Some cars ended up collapsing, but not us, so that’s a good thing. It’s our strength. I think this weekend, our strong point was managing the tires, getting them up to temperature and keeping them alive, whether it was in the race or in qualifying. I think today was a solid race.”

Esteban Ocon is now just four small points behind his teammate Pierre Gasly.