In only his second Formula One race, Esteban Ocon was forced to start from the back of the grid after suffering recurring technical glitches the previous day that left him unable to set a time in qualifying, which in turn would determine his fate in the Italian Grand Prix itself.
Although Ocon went on to finish the race, he was running last down in 18th place and was two laps down at the chequered flag. Even so, that was still better than his Manor team mate Pascal Wehrlein however, who retired with an oil pressure problem midway through the race.
“Obviously not the ideal start position,” sighed Ocon. “It didn’t help us to choose a strategy – we had to take some risk and be opportunistic, but probably it was too much.
“The safety car didn’t come and didn’t help us, and it didn’t work out what we did,” he continued. “I think we could have done a lot better with the car then we did this weekend, so we are a bit disappointed for sure.
“We need to fix the issue that happened this weekend, think about those and come back stronger next weekend to build a great base for the Grand Prix basically.”
Ocon was particularly disappointed with how qualifying and the race worked out given that he felt he had made strong progress getting to grips with the supersoft tyres this weekend.
“I was pretty happy with my pace in practice,” he said. “I improved quite well on those. I had many shots also to see what I could do and adjust myself with those tyres. I was pretty happy after P3.
“I think I did a great step with the supersoft so I was happy on that side. I was waiting to put everything together in qualie and do a good job there, but then a lot of issue happened and it stopped us from doing a good job. That is how it is.”
“For sure the car was quite quick this weekend, possible to get to Q2 and I think be close to the points. But it didn’t go that way for many reasons and we will come back stronger, have a talk and do a better job to get the maximum out of the car – that’s when we are satisfied.”
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