French Report: Ocon Rewarded, Gasly Penalized, Grosjean in the Wall

Esteban Ocon: 7th

Tenth yesterday at the end of qualifying, Esteban Ocon was hoping at least to stay in the top 10, or even slightly climb up the hierarchy. While he directly benefited from the race events, the settings were not optimal, with a very unsettled rear. He thus had to fight throughout the race, especially towards the end to avoid being overtaken: « I am really happy with this result today. It feels good to be 7th after such a tough race. The safety car didn’t make things easy for us because the tires were cold during the restarts and it was not easy to keep Fernando and Kevin behind me in the last laps. I am mentally exhausted because it was a big fight at the end. »

One of the satisfactions for the French driver is that the eight points thus earned also allow him to surpass his teammate, Sergio Perez, for the first time this season, despite Perez’s significant advancement with the 15 points he garnered from his podium in Baku. He will therefore be keen to maintain this lead until the end of the season to stay in Mercedes’ good books.

Pierre Gasly: 14th (penalized by 5 seconds)

Pierre Galsy thought he would be the second Frenchman to score points in this race, but ultimately he lost it off the track for being found responsible for squeezing Sergio Perez in the final chicane and thus overtaking him. The stewards decided to impose a five-second penalty on him, which drops him from 10th to 14th place. It is therefore Sergio Perez who inherits the last point at stake today at Silverstone.

While he stated he was very happy to have found his way back to the points that have eluded him since Monaco, the disappointment can only be greater after this penalty.

He therefore did not fail to show his annoyance at being sanctioned by the arbitral body.

Romain Grosjean: retirement

After finally scoring his first points in Austria, Romain Grosjean was hoping to build a positive momentum. With an 8th place on the grid, he was in an ideal position. Unfortunately, this did not materialize in the race. His race was compromised as early as the third corner when he touched his teammate while going wide with Kevin Magnussen on his outside: « We both braked too late and Kevin tried to turn. We ended up touching. This is not acceptable for the team as it cost us a lot of positions. » This significantly compromised his race as the Frenchman was relegated to 14th position.

However, any chance to save the day vanished on lap 39 when he made a mistake while battling with Carlos Sainz. Both men spun off at the very high-speed Copse corner: « Carlos tried to overtake me on the outside in turn 9. He didn’t leave me much room on the inside and the contact was inevitable. ».