A respectable 12th place for Ocon in the race, but Manor slips behind Sauber

Esteban Ocon had a lot to do from his starting position. Last after receiving a penalty for obstructing Palmer in Qualifications, the young Frenchman nonetheless plunged into the battle without hesitation, trying to take advantage of the Brazilian lottery. Not having stopped before the two red flags, Ocon was in eighth place after the restart on lap 29.

Behind Felipe Nasr’s Sauber, he still needed to hold on until the finish. Unfortunately, after being overtaken by the Red Bull drivers, the 2015 GP3 champion was pushed out of the top 10 in the penultimate lap by Fernando Alonso.

Ocon still surprises!

He eventually finished twelfth, after being overtaken one last time by Bottas’s Williams. But there is no doubt that the 20-year-old driver bowed out with honors, given his strong pace, especially towards the end of the race! Obviously, disappointment prevailed, especially as Nasr managed to snatch ninth place for Sauber: « I am very disappointed and sad for all of us. »

Clearly, Ocon was worried about the precarious state of the Brazilian track. It must be said that he narrowly avoided a disaster by just missing Räikkönen’s drifting Ferrari: « It was a difficult race, although I have my own feelings about continuing the race. But if the track was declared fit for racing, we had to go and do the best job possible. There were some scary moments here, and I was lucky to react quickly to Kimi’s incident. »

Blimey pic.twitter.com/p05n4lwYFg

— Mattzel89 (@Mattzel89) November 13, 2016

The first point of his young career will not be for this time. The biggest regret in the end will be having lost his long-distance duel against Nasr’s Sauber. He let his rival team slip away with two precious points.

From now on, Manor slides into the 11th and last position among the constructors, the most thankless position there is, which would deprive it of the transport rights offered by the FOM: « I obviously pushed as hard as I could – throughout the entire race, in fact! In the third part of the race – after the second red flag – it was clear that I did everything to catch up with Felipe (Nasr). The race worked in his favor, not ours. I did everything I could, but the cars behind me were close at the end: they had the pace to overtake me. There are several reasons to be disappointed: my first F1 point would have been nice! »

Nevertheless, the defense of his position in these extreme conditions pleased his future boss. Deputy team principal at Force India, Bob Fernley was impressed. This race reinforced his decision to choose Ocon for 2017, replacing Hülkenberg: “We are reassured by what we saw from Esteban this Sunday. He had very good driving for Manor. We were aware of his talent, and we are confident in the decision made.”

Wehrlein a tone below

A quieter race for Pascal Wehrlein, who nevertheless started from 19th place. He was also in the points at the time of the second interruption, ninth and behind his teammate. But he was out of the points zone much earlier, as early as the 33rd lap, overtaken by Vettel. He thus finishes 15th and as the penultimate classified driver, a symbol of a much more disappointing race than his French teammate. His comments reflect a lack of confidence: The conditions were terrible throughout the race! Even when the rain decreased, the track still had so much water! There was a gamble in switching from wet to intermediate tires. Conditions were sometimes more favorable, but not enough to change. I experienced aquaplaning; the risk we could have taken would have been brave, but if I had ended up in the wall, we would have gained nothing! Moreover, visibility was poor. It was a very nervous race with these conditions, and I don’t want to experience this again in the near future.

The former DTM driver is actually the fall guy in this matter. While he had secured a miraculous point in Austria, he and his team were overtaken by Sauber. It’s the last straw, especially since the driver of car number 94 was rejected for his application at Force India in favor of Esteban Ocon.

Without really believing it, he was moving towards Abu Dhabi and the realization of a new miracle! « It’s happened, now we have to work hard. Today, the race showed that anything can still happen, although I don’t think it will rain in Abu Dhabi. Motor racing can be unpredictable, so we must keep fighting. »

Disappointing race for us, struggled massive with the car in the race and lost 10. place. Let’s keep fighting and do our best in Abu Dhabi! pic.twitter.com/2AyIgu06oH

— Pascal Wehrlein (@PWehrlein) 14 novembre 2016

Finally, Dave Ryan also reacted to this race. Apparently, the sporting director of the English team was concerned about Sauber’s progress even before the Grand Prix: “We were already worried in Austin and Mexico about Sauber’s progress, but we knew that this race in Interlagos represented an even greater risk. In these conditions, you always need a bit of luck. At one point, things were going in our favor, and we were hoping for our first double entry in the points. But the race evolved with each lap, each safety car, and each red flag,” he stated.

Esteban fought hard to try to turn things in our favor. But both our drivers did an incredible job in these challenging yet revealing conditions. We are behind, but not yet beaten. The whole team is disappointed but there is one race left and we will continue to push until the checkered flag in Abu Dhabi,” concluded Ryan.

Thus, despite this point and the tenth position in the general standings held for four months, Manor plunges to last place at the worst moment. It will be difficult to reverse the trend on the more predictable track of Abu Dhabi.