Esteban Ocon back in the points in Mexico

Esteban Ocon is back in the points (1 point) with a 10th place finish at the Mexican Grand Prix. The Frenchman had a very solid Sunday with an interesting pace. However, the whole weekend was not easy for Ocon. He finished the final practice session in last place before being eliminated in Q1 with only the 16th fastest time.

During the first relay, Ocon managed to regain two positions in the race. Starting on hard tires, the Alpine driver was patient in order to preserve his tires and slowly climb up the rankings. However, he is being patient while taking care not to overly degrade his tires. The initial strategy was a single pit stop and it seems to have worked. The red flag caused by Kevin Magnussen’s accident just before the halfway point (34th lap) forced all drivers to return to the pit lane.

In the second part of the race, the strategy did not change. Alpine put hard tires back on Ocon’s car to go until the end of the race. From the second start, the 27-year-old driver gained an advantage over Lando Norris and Zhou Guanyu to move up to 12th position. A few laps later, Esteban Ocon overtook his teammate Pierre Gasly, taking the 11th position from him.

The 10th place in the final laps.

On the 49th lap, the Norman will benefit from an error by Yuki Tsunoda, who was classified in 8th position at that moment. The Japanese, who restarted in 16th position, allowed the Frenchman to gain a new position, placing him on the edge of scoring points. It was on the 66th lap of the race, after spending a long time in the exhaust of Niko Hülkenberg, that Ocon managed to overtake the Haas and position himself in 10th place. The driver informed his engineers of his intentions before making the move to overtake the American car. “I didn’t announce the overtake. What I meant to say was that regardless of the consequences, I was planning to go for it,” explained the Frenchman in an interview with Canal+ regarding his radio conversation. “I was going to do it, so it was to let them know that they had to make way, otherwise it wouldn’t go well. I’m glad it worked out because it wasn’t certain that it would.”

The last five laps, the Alpine driver manages to keep his teammate at a distance to eventually finish in the points. He surpasses his teammate Pierre Gasly by 3.329 seconds.

A relieving point

The race that Esteban Ocon realized is a true marathon. The Frenchman had to show patience and intelligence regarding the degradation of his tires. After a complicated race, the driver is happy to be rewarded with a point. “We can be satisfied with this race,” said Ocon to Canal +. “We struggled in the first part since we decided to start with the least good tires. We lost positions, but we patiently endured it as predicted, and that was good. From the second start, we gained 3 positions, which is impressive. Ultimately, we fought until the end for this point. It’s a hard-earned point, but we’ll take it. There are things to improve upon from this weekend, but we’re happy with the end of this race. I think on my side, it was solid (…). The phrase “never give up until the end” makes sense today. When we see where we were in the first 20 laps, we can be satisfied.”

Esteban Ocon won his 45th point of the season in Mexico.