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Esteban Ocon picked up the solitary point for BWT Alpine F1 Team in the Mexico City Grand Prix as he recovered from the back of the pack to finish in tenth place at the chequered flag whilst Pierre Gasly narrowly missed out in an eleventh-place finish.
The race was red flagged in lap 34 after Kevin Magnussen had a heavy crash on Turn 8 which allowed Ocon to change tyres for the first time in the race from Hards to Mediums which helped him to pass Nico Hülkenberg five laps from the end on Turn 1 to secure him the final point in the top ten.
Gasly had a strong start to the race, moving up as high as position nine, and pitted on lap 28 for Hards and then again on lap 33 just before the safety car and the incident was upgraded to a red flag. He also passed Hülkenberg on lap 66, on Turn 12, to secure an eleventh-place finish behind his teammate.
Commenting on the race, Ocon said: “A tricky weekend has ended on a positive note with a hard-fought top ten finish here in Mexico. On the post-race radio, I said ‘never give up’ and today was about that. Well done to the team on a well-managed race where there was a lot happening from start to finish. We did not have a great start to begin, losing a few places and I found myself running last for a while. It was a tough first half of the race and we took a risk on strategy and it paid off. The race restart was mega, where I gained a few places in the first couple of corners. From then on, we raced well and maximised our potential today with a tenth-place finish and a well-deserved point.”
Gasly added: “It was a tough afternoon for us today and it’s always disappointing to miss out on scoring points. I think we maximised everything that we had in our hands but, unfortunately, the timing of the Safety Car and Red Flag really cost us as we were well in the fight for at least ninth place after a good start and a decent first stint. I’m glad Kevin [Magnussen] is OK as that looked like a heavy impact for that incident. There are things we need to improve as, clearly, we were lacking in a few areas today. I’m looking forward to rounding off the triple header in Brazil next weekend.”
The team now looks ahead to the Formula 1 Rolex Grande Prêmio De São Paulo this coming weekend (3rd-5th November) and the final Sprint of the season.
