Ocon “content” with having “caught up” after his qualifying crash

The weekend of the Bahrain Grand Prix will have been made of roller coaster for Esteban Ocon. Arrived a little disappointed following a complicated Japanese event, the Frenchman started his Bahraini appointment with the same problems he had encountered in Suzuka. But, on Saturday, the qualifications and the passage in Q2 gave him hope, before he was quickly showered when he was unearthed at the start of Q3, qualifying in 14th position on the starting grid.

However, it was ultimately in eighth place that OCon passed the finish line, again scoring points for Haas. The race on the Sakhir circuit went very well for the Frenchman, who from the start, won two positions. He then stopped very early on to put on medium gums, a strategy that allowed him to go up in the top 10 and stay there.

“It was a crazy thing”said Ocon at the microphone of Canal+. “It feels good, especially after yesterday, especially after a complicated weekend … We hadn’t put everything in order until now, we knew that the speed was there, I made this big mistake yesterday, which cost the team and I am happy to have been able to catch up. I think we maximize the result today, we could not have done better.”

“Happy start, good strategy, aggressive on the start – we can almost double Pierre [Gasly] with this strategy. Now, we had no more speed than that, the safety because at the end almost cost us a lot, it almost benefited from a lot of cars behind, but it also benefited Ollie [Bearman] So double points for the team. “

Because yes, it is a double entry into the points for Haas, which scores five points in total with the tenth place of Oliver Bearman. This result allows the American team to pass Williams in the manufacturers’ classification and take the fifth position.

“We are delighted with this result, and we must continue to maximize what we have in our hands”added Ocon, very motivated. “I think that on this race, we have done it. Now, next week, we will have to do it again.”

Nevertheless, this good result highlights the certain inconsistency that Haas has been showing since the start of the season. This is two good great prices – China and Bahrain – against two bad – Australia and Japan – out of the four runs this year; And these changing performances, Ocon keep them in mind.

“We have to gain a little bit of consistency, performance”he concluded. “In fact, the window of using this car is really small. We change a lot of parts, right to left, we do a lot of tests on a lot of things, and we have to level up, this deficit, at certain times with certain tests that we do.

“I hope that after this weekend, we will have understood a little bit everything that happened during Suzuka and here. Now, I’m glad we have managed to maximize.”