Esteban Ocon: “It’s very challenging to deal with the warm temperatures”

Esteban Ocon felt it was a positive start to the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend for the Alpine F1 Team, with the Frenchman ending an encouraging fourth fastest in Friday’s second practice session at the Hungaroring.

Ocon felt the A521 felt good over one lap in the hot conditions in Hungary, but the Frenchman is cautious about the potential of the car for the rest of the weekend, particularly with cooler weather expected.

But nevertheless, Ocon was pleased with the way the weekend has begun, and he is eyeing a top ten position in Qualifying on Saturday afternoon regardless of the weather conditions.

“It was a good Friday practice overall,” said Ocon.  “The conditions were very tricky with the heat, which must be a record here. I’ve never seen track temperatures above 60C in my career!

“It’s very challenging to deal with the warm temperatures and having to manage the tyres, brakes and the car is a big exercise. Understanding all of that is key, but it looks like it will be much cooler tomorrow.

“Today we were competitive, and the car felt decent on the one lap we did on Softs. It’s a positive start to the weekend, I enjoy driving here, but tomorrow we have to keep working hard for qualifying, which we know is an important session at this track.”

“We don’t have a perfect balance yet” – Fernando Alonso

Team-mate Fernando Alonso ended seventh in both sessions on Friday, and he says he tested a number of different things that he hopes will help them across the rest of the weekend.

Alonso, who took his maiden Formula 1 win at the Hungaroring back in 2003, says they were unable to find a perfect balance on his A521 on Friday, but it was still a productive day for Alpine and he hopes for a strong weekend performance.

“It was an OK day,” said Alonso.  “Obviously the Hungaroring is a very different type of circuit to Silverstone, and you really need to adapt to these low speed corners and the amount of action around a lap.

“We tested a few different things on the car, some of which were thinking about these very high temperatures in Budapest. We don’t have a perfect balance yet so we will have to do a lot of work tonight, but we are getting close, so overall it’s a productive day.”

Fernando Alonso was seventh in both sessions on Friday – Credit: Alpine F1 Team