Esteban Ocon: “It’s disappointing to finish just one position away from the points in the end”

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon finished just outside the points with an eleventh place finish at the Italian Grand Prix. He said that his A522 was working well, though traffic ended up hindering his ability to move forward during the race.

“It was a tricky race today and obviously it’s disappointing to finish just one position away from the points in the end. The car was performing well, and we had good race pace, which we weren’t able to show with traffic ahead. 

With the fast-paced European segment of the season complete, Ocon plans to take advantage of the two weekends off of racing to rest and get ready for the Singapore Grand Prix and the final stretch of the season.

“We’ll refocus and maximise everything for the remaining races from Singapore and onwards. I’m looking forward to a little break to recover from the triple header and fully prepare for the flyaway races where we’ll look to get both cars back into the points in our fight for fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.”

“I was hoping we could see the chequered flag inside the points, but it wasn’t the case today” – Fernando Alonso

Team-mate Fernando Alonso had to retire from the race on lap thirty-one with what the team believed to be a water pressure leak. Having been running in sixth before he was brought back to the garage, he was disappointed to miss out on points for the team.

“It was a challenging race today and we seemed to be finding it difficult to keep up with the cars ahead of us on the straights. We then had to retire the car with a suspected water pressure issue, but we still need to investigate why this happened. 

“We were fighting inside the top ten and I was hoping we could see the chequered flag inside the points, but it wasn’t the case today. It’s been a long three weeks; the team has worked very hard and deserves a short break.

With Alpine unable to score points in Monza, McLaren F1 Team narrowed their gap to fourth by six points. However, Alonso said that with Alpine’s solid lead, they remain in a good spot moving forward to secure fourth in the constructor’s championship. 

“The good news is that we are still ahead in the fight with McLaren for fourth, so we go to Singapore with the aim to be in the top ten again.”