Saudi Arabia Grand Prix – Esteban Ocon: “The best defense is offense”
It was a eventful race for Esteban Ocon, who despite numerous battles, managed to bring his Alpine into the points.
In 5th place, Esteban Ocon had a very good qualifying session. Unfortunately for the Normand, after only 4 laps, he lost his position to George Russell in his Mercedes.
Starting from the 5th lap, Esteban Ocon engaged in a fierce battle with his garage neighbor, Fernando Alonso. After several position exchanges on the 14th lap, the Frenchman was asked to maintain his position.
Indeed, these numerous battles approaching turn number 1 allowed George Russell to pull away, but most importantly, enabled Bottas and Magnussen to get closer to the pink cars.
On the 38th lap, Ocon gained 3 positions following the successive retirements of Fernando Alonso, Daniel Ricciardo, and Valtteri Bottas. He now found himself in a comfortable 7th position.
Unlike last year when Esteban Ocon was overtaken on the finish line by Valtteri Bottas, the opposite scenario played out for the Norman in 2022 with a beautiful overtaking move on Lando Norris in the last turn of the final lap, securing him the 6th position.
It was intense towards the end with Lando, but we had two very good weeks (Bahrain and Jeddah), and we scored a lot of points from our side of the garage. It would have been even better without Fernando’s issue, but it’s very good for the team.
With the new race cars, the best defense is the offense, and with Valtteri behind, it was important to maintain the position.
These two finishes in the points allow Esteban Ocon to hold the 6th position in the driver’s standings with 14 points.
