BWT Alpine F1 Team scored four points from today’s Mexico City Grand Prix with Esteban Ocon finishing eighth after a challenging afternoon at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, which saw Fernando Alonso retire six laps from the end of the race with a cylinder failure.
The team looked set for a seventh-eighth place finish before Fernando’s unfortunate retirement, with Esteban managing cooling issues in the latter stage of the race.
Esteban made a good start in overtaking the #4 McLaren into ninth at the end of the first lap, before settling into his planned one stop strategy.
Esteban pitted on lap 34 for Hards – aiming to go to the end of the 71-lap race. After Fernando’s stop, the Spaniard held seventh with Esteban in eighth after a fine, sweeping move around the outside of Turn 1 on Bottas.
Esteban held seventh but faced cooling issues – a notorious problem in Mexico City with the high altitude – and was passed by Daniel Ricciardo on lap 60, as he settled for eighth at the chequered flag.
Esteban Ocon, (Started P10, Finished P8):
“It was a tough race for the team today. We were on for an important, double points finish before Fernando’s unfortunate retirement. On my side, we were struggling with cooling issues towards the latter half of the race and we had to manage that, which meant we couldn’t match the pace of the McLarens at the end, narrowly missing out on catching Daniel’s [Ricciardo] time penalty.
We come away with some points, but we need to ensure these issues don’t happen again if we are to stay fourth in the championship.”
The next race of the 2022 Formula One season heads to Interlagos in Brazil, for the São Paulo Grand Prix on the 11-13 November, as well seeing as the return of the F1 Sprint for the final time this season.
