Qatar Grand Prix – Esteban Ocon shining in Qatar
Starting 9th on the grid, Esteban Ocon delivered a superb performance in Qatar and finishes in the Top 5.
Always matching his teammate Fernando Alonso’s times in Q1 and Q2, Esteban Ocon fails to stay close to the Spaniard in Q3 and ultimately, 4 tenths separate the two men on Saturday. A significant gap which sees Alonso start 5th and Ocon only 9th.
Determined to get closer to his garage neighbor on Sunday, the Frenchman makes a superb start when the lights go out, allowing him to gain 3 positions.
6th when he enters the pit, the Norman emerges from the pits in 12th position with hard tires.
With Fernando Alonso about to step on the podium, Alpine asks Ocon to defend as best as possible to help his teammate. Resisting for a while against Sergio Perez, the two former teammates have a great battle but the Red Bull is simply too fast for the Alpine.
Taking advantage of Valtteri Bottas’ puncture and Lando Norris’ late pit stop, Esteban Ocon eventually finishes 5th. This is his second best result this season after his victory in Hungary.
(C) It’s a great weekend for the team. We were very fast in the race, which was a nice surprise. I tried to keep Perez behind me but at Losail it’s complicated to keep a driver behind. Overall, it’s a very good result because we scored a lot of points against AlphaTauri.
The points of the 3rd and 5th place allow Alpine to score 25 points compared to 0 for AlphaTauri. The French team has just given itself a real option for 5th place in the constructor’s championship.
