Pressiteade
Fernando started from third on the grid following pre-race penalties forMax Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas, but a superb start and overtake on PierreGasly catapulted him into second. The Spaniard held onto second until ahard-charging Verstappen ultimately came through to take the position.
Fernando relinquished third to Sergio Perez before a second-stop for theMexican propelled Fernando back into podium contention. A late Virtual SafetyCar gave just the margin he needed to secure his maiden podium for Alpine F1Team, the second for the Anglo-French team this season, and the 98th of hiscareer.
Esteban moved up four places on his grid slot to finish fifth overallafter a battling display. Like Fernando, the Frenchman had a good start, movinginto sixth. He had to concede to a charging Perez but moved back up to fifthafter his stop and woes for other drivers. He then played the ultimate teamgame, defending from charging competitors to protect Fernando.
The impressive double-points finish puts Alpine F1 Team 25 points clearin fifth position in the Constructors’ Championship with just two racesremaining.
Esteban Ocon, started P9, finished P5:
“Today was a great race on our side and I am very pleased to havefinished fifth after starting ninth. I managed to pass Carlos [Sainz] and Yuki[Tsunoda] after a good start. I tried to return the favour to Fernando fromBudapest; I asked the team if they needed me to defend from Perez. He was onfresh tyres and it was not easy, but I did the maximum I could. Today’s resultis almost like a win for us. Everyone in the team deserves credit for thisfantastic effort. Twenty-five points’ gain over Alpha Tauri sets us up verywell for the final two races of the year!”
Fernando Alonso, started P3, finished P3:
“It felt fantastic today and to be back on the podium was so good. Wedeserved this result as a team and I’ve had to wait seven years since my lastone. Hopefully we don’t need to wait this long again! We took some risks withthe one-stop strategy but it worked out well. We had some strong pace anddespite Perez catching us at the end we did enough to hang on. Esteban did agreat job in assisting the result and our pitstops were brilliant, so well doneto the whole team. I love this track and the car felt amazing all weekend, so Ican’t wait to come back here. There was also quite a lot of action andovertakes, which is something we weren’t sure of at the start of the weekend.In the end, it was a perfect weekend for us and we scored lots of points in theConstructors’ Championship, so now we have a good advantage over Alpha Tauriheading into the final two races.”
Laurent Rossi, Chief Executive, Alpine: “What a fantastic team result. Firstly, a huge congratulations toFernando on his podium. It marks his first since returning to the team and, Imust say, after the season he has had, he truly deserves it. We knew a bigopportunity would arise today with the pre-race grid penalties for some carsaround us, which propelled us into a great starting position. From there, itwas down to him at the wheel to navigate himself into contention, for the teamto execute the right strategy by making the calls at the right time and thecrew to deliver the perfect pit-stop. All of those elements fell into place andthe end result is a deserved one: our second visit to the podium of the season.We must not forget Esteban’s equally brilliant drive to finish fifth today. Healso enjoyed a superb start, which put him in a great position to score points.He benefitted from other cars two-stopping but still remained calm with othersclosing in late on to take a very valuable ten points. With today’s points haulwe extend our lead on Alpha Tauri in fifth to 25 points with two roundsremaining. While this is a healthy advantage, we’re not going to get too farahead of ourselves. We have two races to go and, as we have seen, anything canhappen in Formula 1. We aim to build on our consistent performances so far thisseason – by scoring in 18 of 20 races – in order to cement fifth position bythe end of the year.”
