Mexican Grand Prix – Esteban Ocon saves the furniture for Alpine

Replaced by Jack Doohan during the first free practice session in Mexico, Esteban Ocon could only start his weekend on Friday afternoon. Immediately in pace, he finished third in the second free practice session.

On Saturday, he confirmed his position by signing the tenth fastest time in qualifying, just behind Alonso. The two Alpines were then sandwiched between the two McLarens on the grid. This promised an exciting battle for the fans in the fight for fourth place in the championship.

After a good start, Ocon quickly found himself in a battle with Valtteri Bottas’ Alfa Romeo. After executing a very nice overtaking maneuver on the Finn at the first turn, the Normand expressed his appreciation for the action.

« I knew that my tires were hot and that I had a chance. My engineer was talking to me about cooling and I told him ‘Don’t talk to me anymore!’. Valtteri braked a little early and I released the brakes to go on the outside. The hardest part was the next two or three laps but I managed to keep him behind me.

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Constantly fighting to maintain a place in the Top 10, Ocon inadvertently benefited from his teammate’s retirement due to a new reliability issue with Alonso’s French car. In contention to be the best of the rest behind Red Bull, Mercedes, and Ferrari, Ocon’s pace dropped towards the end of the race due to issues with his car.

« It’s a shame to lose Fernando’s car. We struggled with the cooling, which caused us to lose performance. That’s why we lost time to Daniel (Ricciardo) in the end. We’re trying to limit the damage. There are still two races left. »

With just two Grand Prix races left in the championship, Alpine maintains a slim seven-point lead over McLaren in the constructors’ standings.