Esteban Ocon achieved his best result of the season at the 2023 Monaco GP, with a P3 finish. Other than the trophy and champagne, however, Ocon was also due to get another gift. This was in the form of bottles of beer for him, and the entire Alpine team, as promised by long-time motorsports veteran Jeremy Clarkson.
Clarkson has been a fan of motorsports his whole life and was the presenter of Top Gear, one of the most famous shows of all time when it comes to automobiles. On 28th May, which was the Monaco GP race day, Clarkson tweeted that he would buy a pint for everyone at Alpine if they managed to get a podium finish. To his delight, the Enstone-based outfit managed to fulfill Clarkson’s wishes.
After Ocon finished P3, fans started wondering if the 63-year-old would hold on to his end of the promise. Earlier this week, he did appear at Alpine’s headquarters, with a truck full of beer bottles to celebrate with the French team.
Esteban Ocon distributes bottles of beer among the entire Alpine outfit
Esteban Ocon started the 2023 Monaco GP from P3 on the grid after Charles Leclerc’s penalty helped him gain a spot. Overtaking in Monaco is extremely difficult, so a podium result was on the cards. In the end, Ocon did manage to hold on to his starting position to bring home Alpine’s first podium of the season.
Clarkson took some time, but in the end, showed up to distribute bottles of beer to the Alpine team members. “Hello everybody, I did say I’ll get you all a beer, and I got you all a beer,” said Clarkson, as shown on Alpine’s official Instagram account.
To everyone’s surprise, Clarkson also brought Kaleb Cooper along with him. Cooper is a part of the show Clarkson’s Farm on Prime, where he plays a advisory role.
Alpine’s official Twitter page also posted a message of thanks for Clarkson. “Cheers for the Beers,” the Tweet said.
In the pictures shared on social media, it appears as though Clarkson bought Hawkstone beets for everyone. The Hawkstone 3.8 pils costs approximately $6, and can be bought in packs of 12 or 24. The former costs $25 and the latter costs $45.
Alpine closing the gap to Ferrari or holding McLaren off?
Alpine is finally beginning to show signs of progress, after an underwhelming start to the year. After Ocon’s podium in Monte Carlo, the French squad followed up with an impressive double points finish in Barcelona. Ocon finished P8 and Pierre Gasly finished P10.
Currently, they have 40 points in the constructors’ standings. They are 60 points behind a struggling Ferrari outfit, and are 33 points ahead of McLaren. Keeping their progress in mind, they would realistically want to aim for P4 by toppling Ferrari.
However, with Ferrari also set to bring upgrades to Canada, their immediate focus will be on performing better than McLaren to hold on to the P5 position strongly.
