01/07/2018
NEWS STORY
Sahara Force India scored 14 points in today's Austrian Grand Prix with Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez finishing in sixth and seventh places respectively.
Esteban Ocon: "I'm happy with this result and it's a very good day for the team. We can be really pleased with our performance today. We managed our tyres well and made the one-stop race work when others around us were struggling. We kept our tyres going until the end and we also showed great teamwork with Checo as we swapped places to chase Magnussen. I think we showed where this team is strong. Hopefully the next updates will keep bringing performance to the car and we can keep the momentum going. The championship battle in the midfield is going to be very close until the end of the season and we need to keep pushing."
Sergio Perez: "It's been a really positive day for the team. We have come away with important points from a weekend that was quite challenging in the lead up to the race. Starting from P15 on the grid and finishing seventh is a great effort and we should be proud of this achievement. Yes, there were some cars that retired ahead of us, but we raced well and made our strategy work so that we could take advantage of these opportunities. We didn't pit under the Virtual Safety Car, like many others did, but the strategy we chose worked really well and I had strong pace all afternoon, especially in the closing laps. I wanted to chase down Magnussen at the end, but it just wasn't possible."
Otmar Szafnauer: "Today's result represents a very well executed race by the entire team. We kept out of trouble in the opening laps and then made some excellent calls from the pit wall to keep Esteban and Sergio in contention for points. The race pace was solid and Esteban and Sergio worked well together as we tried to chase down Magnussen. To score 14 points from a weekend where we didn't optimise our Friday and Saturday sessions helps make today's performance more satisfying and is a nice way to celebrate our 200th race as Force India."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Spielberg, here.