30/05/2023
NEWS STORY
Esteban Ocon pays tribute to his team as podium finish in Monaco leaves him 'on a cloud'.
Just weeks after Laurent Rossi tore into the team, describing it as "amateur", Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly delivered the perfect riposte, scoring 21 points and a podium finish.
Promoted to third on the grid following Charles Leclerc's penalty, Ocon held off the likes of Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton to give the French team a dream podium finish, while teammate Gasly brought the second Alpine home in seventh.
"I'm speechless at the moment. I'm a little bit on my cloud, still," said an ecstatic Ocon at race end. "Before the weekend, if you told us that we're going to be in the top ten, we would have been happy. It would have been a strong weekend.
"But we are not in the top ten," he laughed, "we're not in the top five, we're on the podium!
"We had a difficult start to the season," he continued, "but I felt strong in the car from the first session. I felt confident at the wheel. I was able to push, session after session, closer to the limit than I'm usually doing in Monaco. That allowed me to do the lap I did yesterday, which is obviously 90 per cent of the job."
Ocon was one of several drivers to stop early in the race, meaning that a second stop was required once the rain arrived. However, there was a scare earlier in the race when he was hit from behind by Sainz.
"Today has been a little bit of a harder race," he told reporters. "We hold that podium for a while, we had it secure, but I got a touch from Carlos at one stage, got damage on the back of the car. Then the rain shuffled everything again, and we have to choose to take the inters at the right time.
"From there on, I was under a huge amount of pressure from Lewis. Until the last lap, he was pushing flat out; he was quicker in the wet section from 5 to 8, and I was quick on the dry sections.
"It's been an incredibly tough race to get under control, but the reward is immense. What a super weekend from everyone at the team. From the first day, from the simulator really. All the practice sessions we improved the car, from beginning to end, and we didn't make a wrong foot any time, even when we put the Inter tyres it was the perfect lap to do so.
"I'm just enjoying the moment now," he concluded. "It's been a while since I've been on the podium and I hope this is the first of many."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Monaco here.