Esteban’s four points ensured he claimed his first points of the 2023 campaign, while Pierre was able to repeat his ninth-place effort achieved in Bahrain on debut with the team a fortnight ago.
It was a largely uneventful evening for the team with both drivers on a one-stop - Medium to Hard - strategy in the 50-lap race. Pierre had a small scare on lap one as he was tagged by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri on the exit of Turn 2 and escaped without damage to his A523.
Pierre pitted first for Hards on lap 14, with Esteban into the pits two laps later for the same compound. A Safety Car on lap 17 for LanceStroll’s retirement meant both drivers were jumped by Yuki Tsunoda who was yet to pit at that stage of the race. At the restart, Esteban cruised past the Alpha Tauri on lap 24, before Pierre repeated the move with a neat overtake into Turn 1.
From there, both drivers ran conservatively to the chequered flag to guarantee a deserved six points.
Esteban Ocon, started P6, finished P8:
“Overall, I would say it’s been a reasonable race for the team. The final result reflects our performance in the race and eighth place is the maximum we could have achieved today. Having both cars in the points is definitely positive, especially afterBahrain, but we must not be completely satisfied with where we are at the moment. Our car has potential and we will continue learning and building to catch up to our competitors. We want to challenge for positions higher up the grid, and we will keep working hard to do that. We will debrief on this weekend and our attention will quickly turn to Australia where we’ll aim for more.”
