Pressiteade
An action-packed race saw both cars start well with Daniel moving up tofourth and Esteban eighth after a first lap collision at turn four. The firststint was largely dictated by a DRS train and saw little action. Daniel boxedon lap 30 switching to the Harder compound tyres and lost out one place toKvyat due to the undercut.
Esteban stayed out committing to a one stop strategy and didn’t box foranother 12 laps switching to Hard tyres. A fantastic pitstop put him in rangeof Stroll in ninth place with the Frenchman swooping past into turn four.Daniel then boxed again for his final stop on lap 56 re-joining the track ineighth, whilst Esteban capitalised on others pitting around him and moved intofourth.
A few laps later a Safety Car was brought out for a dislodged frontwing on the main straight, and a slow pitstop from Bottas meant Esteban movedinto second. He was quickly overtaken by Russell after the Safety Car restart,but the Mercedes was forced to pit again after fitting the wrong tyres duringhis stop. To add to his woes, Russell suffered a tyre puncture just laps laterpushing Esteban back into second for the final stages of the race. TheFrenchman held firm against Stroll to cap a stunning drive and mark his bestresult in Formula 1 whilst Daniel came home in fifth.
Daniel Ricciardo, started P7, finished P5:
“It’s an amazing result for the team and congratulations to Esteban forgetting his first ever podium, it was a really strong race by him and his sideof the garage. For me it was slightly disappointing as we could have done evenbetter than fifth. I was happy with my start and I felt like there was a lot ofopportunity being in fourth after lap one. We then boxed and lost ground toKvyat and stayed behind him for a while. We managed to get back ahead after thesecond stop but there wasn’t much I could do in the DRS train. We go at itagain next weekend and try finish the season strong.”
Esteban Ocon, started P11, finished P2:
“What a race! We made it, we’re on the podium and it’s a fantasticfeeling. It was awesome and all the emotions left my body when I crossed theline. I definitely cried and I’m proud to say it. That moment, crossing theline, I’ll remember it forever. The team executed the race really well, we hadstrong pace, and I had some fun out there with some overtakes too. It’s been atough season but we kept believing in ourselves and that’s rewarded with thisamazing feeling. Keep believing and it will come at some point! We’veprogressed massively this year and next week it’s back to it to focus on endingthe season as best as we can.”
Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal:
“If a result like today is a team effort, it’s clearly one for Esteban.I am very, very happy for him that he can also experience for himself the goodvibes that we’ve been having since the summer shutdown when the team’sprogression has accelerated. We’ve had two podiums with Daniel and this timeround it was with Esteban and we are all very grateful for that. His weekendwas strong, the only challenging moment was in Q2 when we failed to progressinto Q3. But that actually may have helped with the free starting tyre choice.From that point onwards, he drove a very strong race, managing to preserve thetyres at the start, be aggressive when it mattered and defending very well atthe end against faster cars. There is a feeling that maybe we could have done abit better with Daniel, which would have helped a bit our Constructors’Championship situation. We’ll give our maximum in Abu Dhabi next weekend withthe particular double thought and motivation of our last race with Daniel andas Renault F1 Team.”
