After a disappointing Saturday for the team for the F1 Sprint, the Grand Prix was much more fruitful for the team, as Esteban and his teammate Fernando Alongso banked 14 points for the team, extending their advantage over McLaren in the Constructors' Championship, as the team moves onto 167 points.
Both drivers demonstrated good teamwork in the 71-lap race with Esteban on a two-stop Soft-Medium-Soft strategy and Fernando on a bold three-stop as he depended on a late charge on Softs to pick up a handful of places in the closing stages.
The team looked set to claim a solid top ten finish with both cars before a Virtual Safety Car, upgraded to a full Safety Car, for Lando Norris’s stoppage at Turn 10 on lap 50. That set up a dramatic finale as Esteban impressively overtook both Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas to hold a comfortable eighth place.
Esteban allowed his teammate past cleanly at Turn 10 - who was now on fresh Soft tyres, compared to the Medium tyre of Esteban.
In a tense ending to the race, Esteban held on well to secure P8 at the chequered flag - bagging six points for the team, making up eight positions from his starting grid slot.
Esteban Ocon, (Started P16, Finished P8):
“It’s a great result for the team today and I’m very happy with our race. We maximised the different strategies on both cars and scored fourteen points heading into the last race of the season.
It was a good recovery drive from Fernando and me after starting from where we did, so credit to the team for the execution. We knew we had to be at our best after yesterday’s disappointment and that’s exactly what we did in the race.
The season is not over and we still have one more race to go. It’s going to be full push until the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi.”
The season finale at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi will take place next weekend on the 18-20 November - where Esteban and the team will be aiming to wrap up P4 in the Constructors' Championship!
