Did Esteban Ocon have anything to fight for when he collided with race leader Max Verstappen while trying to un-lap himself?
After the race Haas team principal Guenther Steiner criticised Ocon for the collision, saying he “had nothing to gain.”
“I don’t know how far the people were behind him which were fighting with him but he was out of the points, I think he was pretty far back,” Steiner explained.Ocon was in 14th place when he tangled with Verstappen. The Force India driver had recently made his pit stop and was attempting to run to the end of the race on a set of super-soft tyres.
He was poised to gain places from Brendon Hartley and Carlos Sainz Jnr, who were yet to pit. He also stood a good chance of overtaking Pierre Gasly, who had a straight-line speed disadvantage and was running a very long stint on medium tyres.
Ocon was therefore on course for 11th place, one place away from scoring a point. This would have been in jeopardy had he lost time behind Verstappen and failed to jump ahead of Hartley and Sainz, which explains why his team were so eager for him to un-lap himself.
In the closing stages of the race the two leading drivers suffered a loss of pace for different reasons. Lewis Hamilton’s power unit was on the brink of failure and Verstappen’s car was badly damaged by the hit with Ocon.
This should have given Kimi Raikkonen in third place an opportunity to capitalise. But having started on the soft tyres instead of the super-softs used by the other two, he switched to the harder medium compound tyres for the final stint, and wasn’t able to catch the struggling lead pair.
2018 Brazilian Grand Prix lap chart
The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
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2018 Brazilian Grand Prix race chart
The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
Position change
| Driver | Start position | Lap one position change | Race position change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Valtteri Bottas | 3 | 1 | -2 |
| Sebastian Vettel | 2 | -1 | -4 |
| Kimi Raikkonen | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| Daniel Ricciardo | 11 | 1 | 7 |
| Max Verstappen | 5 | 0 | 3 |
| Sergio Perez | 12 | 0 | 2 |
| Esteban Ocon | 18 | -1 | 4 |
| Lance Stroll | 19 | 1 | 1 |
| Sergey Sirotkin | 14 | -3 | -2 |
| Nico Hulkenberg | 13 | -1 | |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | 15 | 2 | 3 |
| Pierre Gasly | 9 | 1 | -4 |
| Brendon Hartley | 16 | 0 | 5 |
| Romain Grosjean | 8 | 1 | 0 |
| Kevin Magnussen | 10 | -1 | 1 |
| Fernando Alonso | 17 | 2 | 0 |
| Stoffel Vandoorne | 20 | 0 | 5 |
| Marcus Ericsson | 6 | -3 | |
| Charles Leclerc | 7 | 1 | 0 |
2018 Brazilian Grand Prix lap times
All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:
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2018 Brazilian Grand Prix fastest laps
Each driver’s fastest lap:
| Rank | Driver | Car | Fastest lap | Gap | On lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’10.540 | 65 | |
| 2 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’10.831 | 0.291 | 71 |
| 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’11.343 | 0.803 | 62 |
| 4 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’11.578 | 1.038 | 61 |
| 5 | Lance Stroll | Williams-Mercedes | 1’11.751 | 1.211 | 68 |
| 6 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’11.769 | 1.229 | 64 |
| 7 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’11.795 | 1.255 | 70 |
| 8 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’12.082 | 1.542 | 70 |
| 9 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 1’12.169 | 1.629 | 50 |
| 10 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’12.206 | 1.666 | 67 |
| 11 | Esteban Ocon | Force India-Mercedes | 1’12.352 | 1.812 | 70 |
| 12 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’12.362 | 1.822 | 71 |
| 13 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’12.472 | 1.932 | 58 |
| 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Renault | 1’12.643 | 2.103 | 57 |
| 15 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’12.949 | 2.409 | 53 |
| 16 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren-Renault | 1’12.968 | 2.428 | 68 |
| 17 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’13.822 | 3.282 | 55 |
| 18 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1’14.029 | 3.489 | 30 |
| 19 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams-Mercedes | 1’14.262 | 3.722 | 52 |
| 20 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’15.281 | 4.741 | 3 |
2018 Brazilian Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
| Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | Super soft (19) | Medium (52) | |
| Valtteri Bottas | Super soft (18) | Medium (41) | Soft (12) |
| Sebastian Vettel | Soft (27) | Medium (26) | Super soft (18) |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Soft (31) | Medium (40) | |
| Max Verstappen | Super soft (35) | Soft (36) | |
| Charles Leclerc | Super soft (35) | Medium (36) | |
| Romain Grosjean | Super soft (32) | Medium (39) | |
| Daniel Ricciardo | Super soft (39) | Soft (32) | |
| Kevin Magnussen | Soft (41) | Super soft (30) | |
| Pierre Gasly | Super soft (22) | Medium (48) | |
| Sergio Perez | Super soft (39) | Soft (31) | |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | Soft (25) | Medium (23) | Super soft (22) |
| Brendon Hartley | Medium (49) | Super soft (21) | |
| Esteban Ocon | Soft (40) | Super soft (17) | |
| Stoffel Vandoorne | Soft (28) | Medium (42) | |
| Fernando Alonso | Soft (15) | Medium (39) | Super soft (15) |
| Sergey Sirotkin | Soft (16) | Medium (53) | |
| Lance Stroll | Soft (17) | Medium (48) | Super soft (4) |
| Nico Hulkenberg | Soft (32) | ||
| Marcus Ericsson | Super soft (18) | Medium (2) |
2018 Brazilian Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
| Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 22.551 | 27 | |
| 2 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 22.618 | 0.067 | 28 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 22.641 | 0.090 | 19 |
| 4 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 22.683 | 0.132 | 53 |
| 5 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 22.727 | 0.176 | 59 |
| 6 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 22.766 | 0.215 | 31 |
| 7 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 22.955 | 0.404 | 18 |
| 8 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 23.046 | 0.495 | 54 |
| 9 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 23.115 | 0.564 | 41 |
| 10 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams | 23.273 | 0.722 | 16 |
| 11 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 23.300 | 0.749 | 39 |
| 12 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 23.377 | 0.826 | 18 |
| 13 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 23.403 | 0.852 | 32 |
| 14 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso | 23.422 | 0.871 | 49 |
| 15 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 23.432 | 0.881 | 35 |
| 16 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 23.505 | 0.954 | 39 |
| 17 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber | 23.593 | 1.042 | 35 |
| 18 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 23.757 | 1.206 | 22 |
| 19 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 23.770 | 1.219 | 48 |
| 20 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 23.939 | 1.388 | 25 |
| 21 | Lance Stroll | Williams | 24.283 | 1.732 | 65 |
| 22 | Lance Stroll | Williams | 24.608 | 2.057 | 17 |
| 23 | Esteban Ocon | Force India | 27.226 | 4.675 | 40 |
| 24 | Esteban Ocon | Force India | 31.198 | 8.647 | 57 |
| 25 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 33.753 | 11.202 | 15 |
2018 Brazilian Grand Prix
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ColdFly (@)
12th November 2018, 11:40
The real problem was Ocon’s regular pit stop. It took him 3-5s longer than his teammate.
Without that lost time he would have been ahead of Verstappen.
But even then the leaders would have overtaken him a few laps later. The RPFI was never fast enough to even outpace a tyre saving RBR or Mercedes.
erikje
12th November 2018, 13:36
And driving in clean air is a big advantage. Why would any raceleader loose that advantage to let a slightly faster FI pass and as a result ruin your tires.
He probably would have passed Ocon again some corners later with the help of blue flags but loosing speed and time to Hamilton as a result.
Markos
14th November 2018, 20:22
863 replies in the Ban Verstappen, Verstappen needs to calm down and Verstappen should have done as HRH Hamilton would have done…
And only a few people here check the facts and look at the laptimes to see Ocon was actually only faster in ONE lap… Just before they collided.