Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon praise each other after a tough fight in F1 Miami GP, as both managed to score points even though lowly.
The former teammates were back together on track in the closing stages of F1 Miami GP where it went wheel-to-wheel for couple of laps which was eventually won by Aston Martin’s Alonso as he managed to retain ninth from Alpine’s Ocon.
Considering the gap between the two teams, it hasn’t happened for a while but in Miami GP, Alonso lacked pace while Ocon had more which brought them together post the safety car. For the Aston Martin driver, it was low-key position considering their pace.
As for the Alpine driver, it was almost a win knowing that they have been running mostly last in 2024. The Frenchman dived past the Spaniard initially, but Alonso came back at him to regain the position and maintain it until the chequered flag.
Post-race, both shared a selfie together and had good praise for each other while discussing about their races. “Good battles, with Esteban it was very hard fighting as well,” said Alonso to media. “As always, he’s a racer but always with respect. I really enjoyed the fight with him.
“It is a first point for Alpine which I am happy as well for them but I think Esteban drove pretty well to take that point, so well done to them. I think we were lucky with the safety car. That really helped our race, starting on the hard we were thinking to probably stop a bit later but the virtual safety car came in that lap and we took the opportunity.
“And then the full safety car bunched everyone else and we were with medium and other were with the hard tyre, so we had a little advantage there, so all in all we were lucky with the strategy and with safety car, a little bit better in the race compared to qualifying. But we still need to improve and find more pace,” summed up Alonso.
On the other side, despite the point, Ocon is remaining realistic. He also put away that he and Alonso do not share good respect. “We don’t want to be jumping around and celebrating too hard, obviously it is only a Top 10,” he said. “But considering where we were couple of races ago in Bahrain – 19th and 20th – I think we can take the positive out of the Miami race.
“Baby steps that we are doing at the moment, that obviously feels good because you know the team kept motivated, kept trying to understand what is going on with the pace. It hasn’t been the smoothest weekends with the pace, but it is two races that we have come close to the points, 11th in Shanghai and 10th in Miami, definitely it feels good to come out of this weekend with the reward.
“I had to fight my way through in the race, I can’t say how many moves that I had to do. Whatever all the people say, I enjoy a lot the fights with Fernando, I always did. I know how far I can push it with him, I know how far we can go side-by-side. I ran out of battery, that’s what I told him and that’s why he couldn’t pass me so quickly!
“But yeah, well done to him, it’s been a great fight and I hope I can have many more in the future with him,” summed up Ocon, whose drive found a pat on his head and handshake from Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton as well, which was caught on his onboard in the parc ferme just when the Frenchman arrived to get out of his car.
Here’s note on Fernando Alonso talking about bias
Here’s how F1 Miami GP panned out
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