Esteban Ocon praised Fernando Alonso in F1 Abu Dhabi GP fight as he fended off Lewis Hamilton himself, while Oliver Bearman was surprised by penalty.
After a disastrous low feel on Friday of F1 Abu Dhabi GP weekend, Haas’ Ocon staged a comeback drive on Saturday, qualifying inside the Top 10. The performance came from nowhere after the Frenchman elected to change a lot of things on the car, going into qualifying.
It transformed his performance as he had lot more confidence in the car, which was missing for several races, especially in the second half of the season. On Sunday as well, Ocon was able to keep himself inside the Top 10 and chase Aston Martin’s Alonso for sixth in the order.
But the Spaniard’s clever defence didn’t allow Ocon to hustle through. It was to be a crucial pass considering the constructors’ battle, which Haas lost to Aston Martin by 10 points in the end. “Yeah, I’m very happy to finish the season like that, but there’s a bittersweet taste on that one because it’s the last 10 races we should have been strong like this,” he said to media.
“It hurts that we’ve missed the constructors’ championship because of that. We couldn’t beat Aston. But it’s before that we should have scored more points. It was a really strong race other than that. I think we showed great pace, great tyre management, good overtaking as well. It was nice to fight, to be able to fight like that all the way and catching back in front. But effectively Fernando was too strong.
“He was managing extremely well in that tight part. We were all stuck behind him and then he was pushing in the next four corners and then that was opening enough of a gap for us not to overtake. So, yeah, he still knows the tricks, pissed me off. He’s incredible. He’s a legend in wheel-to-wheel racing. And today we were not quick enough to be able to try and go in front of him.
“So, missing out by few points is, as I said, difficult to swallow, but nice to end up the championship on such a note and good to build up the foundation for next year like that, yeah,” summed up Ocon, who while chasing Alonso, had to defend his position against Ferrari’s Hamilton. The Brit managed to get through him, but the Frenchman came back on him to retake seventh.
He then managed to keep him at bay to end the season on a high. “It’s not the first time that it has happened,” continued Ocon. “It’s very nice to be fighting with Lewis. Obviously, it would be nice to be fighting for higher up positions than where we are fighting, but, yeah, it was good for us to be able to keep him behind and to score some more points, at the end of the day.
“And I think Lewis has shown a great comeback today from where he started the race. And yeah, he clearly showed his talent and I think on a normal race he should have finished in front of us,” summed up Ocon, whose teammate Bearman lost out on points due to post-race penalty. It was all confusing towards the end of the race in the fight for ninth involving multiple cars.
Bearman had to defend from the likes of Lance Stroll, Nico Hulkenberg, Carlos Sainz and Gabriel Bortoleto. He lost out by the chequered flag after the Canadian was able to push through. But a penalty to Aston Martin driver helped him back in ninth, only to lose again after his own penalty for the same offence of weaving multiple times in defence.
It was confusing for Bearman in the end. “Yeah, it was in Turn 9. I need to look myself,” he said to media. [The penalty was for] more than one change of direction is the ruling, didn’t know it was not allowed to break the tow anymore, so that’s strange. Not sure why I was penalised.
“I mean, of course I was moving to defend my position, but I moved to break the tow, which is one separate thing and then I defended my position. I left Lance space. So, I don’t know. Some of these rulings we need to understand, why they were made because…I don’t know,” summed up Bearman
Here’s Fernando Alonso retaining P6 to help Aston Martin
Here’s how F1 Abu Dhabi GP panned out
