Assessment of the French: Full Sunshine for Ocon and Gasly, Clearing for Grosjean

What a contrast with Barcelona! The last performance of our three Frenchmen was marked by distress. But this Saturday in Monaco, our three Frenchmen are bearers of hope. All succeeded in their session, beating their own teammate. A 100% unprecedented result against the clock in 2018.

Esteban Ocon (Force India): 6th

The Force India driver achieved his best qualifying of the season, having only made it to Q3 once before, in Baku (7th). But Esteban Ocon came very close to the cut in the first stage of qualifying: fifteenth, just a tenth behind Brendon Hartley. He then excelled in Q2 and especially in Q3. Here is his immediate reaction, on Canal+ microphone:

« It’s wonderful! We achieved a superb qualification. Honestly, it wasn’t a given. Superb comeback from the whole team. »

Before continuing. « I was on the edge of being out in Q1. I made progress during Q2, which was very important. Honestly, I didn’t do a phenomenal lap in Q3… but it was enough for me to be P6. The car’s improvements worked very well. »

The Mercedes protégé found a big reason for hope in what had been a dull season so far (one point on the scoreboard).

« Obviously, I have the ambition to score big points. We’ll have to push to keep this position. We will also try to take advantage of the race conditions. I’m in a good position, happy with where I am on the grid. »

Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso-Honda): 10th

Despite his modest times this Thursday, the Rouen native was not worried. It paid off for him. As planned, Pierre Gasly copied his teammate Brendon Hartley’s settings. A rewarding result: the 2016 GP2 champion climbed into the top 10 in FP3, and stayed there during the qualifications, unlike the New Zealander, who was eliminated after Q1. Two sessions and nine-tenths separated the two drivers at the end of Pierre Gasly’s last lap. The Frenchman was obviously satisfied with his session.

« I knew it would be tight (to make it into Q3). We really made a big step forward between FP2 and Qualifying. I felt comfortable in the car today. »

The driver who finished fourth in Bahrain tells us about his effort in detail and that hint of luck. « I gave it my all in Q3, I even brushed the wall on the inside coming out of the Pool’s esses. It was my first real contact of the weekend here. Fortunately, I didn’t break my suspension. »

His prospects are interesting, with the hypothesis of finishing in the points for the second time in his career. The evolution of Pirelli tires does not seem to affect him too much.

« I didn’t drive much in FP2 due to a brake problem. We just know that this tire degradation will be very critical for everyone. But here, you can drive two seconds slower than your opponent, the important thing is to defend well! »

🇲🇨 #MonacoGP – Qualifying 🏁 pic.twitter.com/EO8OxOoIpx

— Toro Rosso (@ToroRosso) May 26, 2018

Romain Grosjean (Haas-Ferrari): 15th

What might seem like a not-so-glorious 15th place for some is satisfactory for Romain Grosjean, who knows perfectly well that he doesn’t have the most effective car for this type of street circuit: « It was as good as we could do. After the second free practice session, we struggled a bit with the balance, made some changes for the third session, and a few more for qualifying. That brought us a bit more speed. But we generally lack downforce. »

The Frenchman will still start from 18th place tomorrow, thus serving his penalty received in Barcelona following his first lap incident. No need to speculate about his possible race result: « Do you have a crystal ball? » jokes Grosjean when asked what position he could reach in the race tomorrow.

🏁 #Q2 #Quali #MonacoGP

End of the road for @RGrosjean. Finishes P15 – will take three-place grid spot tomorrow.#HaasF1 🏎🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Kuh0Q0klbj

— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) 26 mai 2018

From our special correspondents in Monaco (with Axel Brémond)