“We were quicker than the Sauber” – Esteban Ocon expressed contentment with improvement in Alpine performance at Imola and his battle to the finish with Fernando Alonso.
Alpine, with their Renault engines, took the first points of the season home at the Emilia Romagna GP in Imola, with Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso earning 2 and 1 points, respectively. In the season-opener at Bahrain, Ocon had finished P14 finish, while the Spaniard had to face retirement.
#MondayMotivation? 2021 points account is firmly open.
2 down, 21 to go! pic.twitter.com/Xj5KaoXcEq— Alpine F1 Team (@AlpineF1Team) April 19, 2021
This has pleased Ocon, but not overly, as they announce their intentions to win the battle of the midfield runners. Their prime rivals currently seem to be the other 3 As of Aston Martin, AlphaTauri, and Alfa Romeo.
“I think we have our spot in the top 10, that is clear today. Today hasn’t been a straightforward race like it has been the rest of the weekend. I think we had the potential to potentially be P7, P8, that the dry pace was actually quite solid.
“We were quicker than the Sauber [Alfa Romeo] today. We are not where we want to be exactly, but we’ve made a step this weekend with the upgrades that we got and we felt good in the car driving it for myself and Fernando, and, yeah, we want to score more points in the next race.”
Ocon relishes fight with legendary teammate
Ocon has a champion teammate in Alonso this season and needs to be on the top of his game, considering his average last season. Alonso has started slowly but has it in him to consistently finish in the top half, and sneak into the podium occasionally.
“We had good fights together with Fernando – it was good fun. I feel like there was potentially more on the table today; the pace was good inside the Top 10.”
Read more “Leaving the Alpines and an Aston Martin behind us” – Has Alfa Romeo joined the midfield battle?
