One hundred up and season-best for Esteban in strong Austrian Grand Prix as Fernando fights back

Esteban’s comfortable fifth place after executing atwo-stop strategy brings his best race result of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 WorldChampionship season after progressing from his sixth-place grid slot.

After replacing a number of parts on the car afteryesterday’s starting grid issues, Fernando propelled from the back row of thegrid to tenth at the chequered flag. It’s the second time this season Fernandohas progressed from the final row to the points after doing so in Spain earlierin the year.

Esteban’s race was largely uneventful as he benefitted fromthe retirements of Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz to go from sixth to fifth.Esteban started on Mediums and pitted on laps 16 and 44 for Hards to take himto the flag.

After starting on Hards, Fernando pitted on lap 27 forHards, lap 57 for Mediums under the Virtual Safety Car and again as aprecaution a lap later after feeling vibrations in the car.

The next race in two weeks’ time sees the team gear up forits home race – the French Grand Prix – at Circuit Paul Ricard.

Esteban Ocon, started P6, finished P5: “What aday, what a weekend! I think we really maximised the pace of the car today whenit really mattered. It was a great way to cap off my 100th Grand Prix inFormula 1. There were some good fights on the track today, but in the endGeorge [Russell] was too quick and fifth position was the best we could haveachieved. We go home with some very good points after this weekend, moving upto eighth in the Drivers’ Championship and now level with McLaren in theConstructors’ Championship. As a team we are moving in the right direction andwe have momentum on our side going into Paul Ricard, one of the team’s homeraces, and of course mine as well. It should be an incredible weekend and Ican’t wait to be back in front of the home fans in two weeks’ time.”

Fernando Alonso, started P19, finished P10: “Onepoint is better than nothing considering we started on the back row today. Ithink it was one of my best races this season, other than probably atSilverstone last weekend. I think we were fighting for sixth or seventhpositions, but then there were some strange vibrations on the tyres we fittedafter our second stop under the Virtual Safety Car. As it was still under theVSC, we decided to stop again for another new set of tyres. Unfortunately, welost some positions with this extra pit-stop and had to fight back on the lastfew laps. In the end we managed to take tenth position. Ultimately, only onepoint from this race feels a little bit of a shame for me, but we can be veryhappy with our overall pace and performance as a team this weekend.”

Otmar Szafnauer, TeamPrincipal: “Firstly,congratulations to Esteban for marking his 100^th Formula 1 GrandPrix start by scoring ten points in fifth place. He thoroughly deserved thatafter driving so well today and executing a very good two-stop strategy. Byscoring so highly, combined with yesterday’s effort in the Sprint, it means theteam is continuing its momentum forwards after delivering some good upgrades atrecent events. Fernando too drove exceptionally well to put behind yesterday’sdisappointment and go from the back of the grid through to a points-scoringposition. We had some reliability issues this weekend, which means we cannotleave Austria feeling completely satisfied. We must focus on getting on top ofthese issues so we can have a trouble-free second half of the season. Weclearly have a quick car, but we must also ensure all operational issues of theteam are performing to a high standard, so we continue to score good pointswith both cars.”