Pressiteade
The race started under wet conditions with a constant light drizzledampening the 5.338km Istanbul Park. Both drivers managed their starts well andFernando momentarily took fourth position at the exit of Turn 1, before heavycontact from behind by Gasly’s Alpha Tauri span his A521 the wrong way anddemoted him towards the back of the pack.
Esteban avoided the first corner drama and found himself on the cuspof the top ten positions after the opening exchanges. Following his firstcorner incident, Fernando attempted to climb back up the order and during hissteady ascent, he clipped the rear of Mick Schumacher’s Haas going into Turn 4,which he later received a five second time penalty for.
The race then settled into a rhythm with little action. With the trackremaining damp, Fernando opted to fit fresh Intermediates on lap 31 and servedhis time penalty during the pit-stop.
Meanwhile, Esteban continued to apply pressure to those inside the topten positions and decided to stay out for the entire duration of the 58-laprace. Thanks to his excellent tyre management, Esteban was able to climb intothe top ten and despite some late pressure from a charging Antonio Giovinazzi,managed to hold onto tenth position at the chequered flag by just under asecond.
Fernando was stuck in sixteenth for the latter part of the race to enda frustrating day for the two-time World Drivers’ Champion.
EstebanOcon, started P12, finished P10
“Scoringone point today does feel sweet after a challenging weekend and a very longrace. It was good to take a risk today by going to the end on one set of tyres,which you don’t see very often. It was also nice to give the guys a break fromdoing pit-stops for the afternoon! I remember at this race last year the samecould have been possible; it was difficult, but the tyres just about lasted andwe have a small reward for that in the end. I enjoyed the fights on track outthere too, we managed to muscle our way through, which was fun. One point isnice and hopefully we can keep building for the next race.”
FernandoAlonso, started P5, finished P16
“Itwas very tricky conditions today and very slippery. Unfortunately we had thetwo collisions, which damaged our race. Pierre [Gasly] was in a sandwich goinginto the corner and hit the rear of my car. And then I am sorry to Mick[Schumacher] for hitting his car going into Turn 4. I went for the overtake butit was very difficult to see everyone around you in the wet conditions. It wasbad luck today and it’s a shame we weren’t able to capitalise on our excellentstarting position. Nevertheless, as a team we still scored a point today andwe’ll pick ourselves up for Austin where hopefully our luck changes.”
Marcin Budkowski, Executive Director: “Today was a very meagre outcome for the team.Fernando was pushed out by Gasly at Turn 1 and then had another incident withSchumacher. From there his race was heavily compromised. He couldn’t find thepace even after the graining phase of the tyres and we have to check if therewas any damage to the car from the two earlier contacts. It’s a frustratingoutcome for him after starting from fifth, especially seeing where Gaslyfinished the race. On Esteban’s side, it was a masterclass in tyre management.He covered the whole race distance on one set of Intermediates to salvage apoint, which, starting from twelfth in a race with no attrition, is a prettydecent outcome. Even if we extend our points scoring streak to fifteen races ina row, we lost points in our fight for fifth in the championship. We’re nowturning our focus on the next race in Austin where we aim to bounce back.”
