Esteban Ocon described the Mexican Grand Prix as one of his worst F1 races to date.
The Force India driver, who is at risk of being without a drive for the 2019 F1 season, finished out of the points after damaging his car on the first lap of the race.“This has been probably the worst race of my whole Formula One career so far,” said Ocon. “Nothing went our way and it’s just been a terrible afternoon.”
Ocon started from a promising 11th on the grid which allowed him to start on more durable tyres than the four cars in front of him.
“I made a very good start, managed to pass the two Saubers on the run down to turn one, but that’s pretty much the only positive to take from today,” he said.
“I went alongside Carlos [Sainz Jnr] in turn three but I saw he was going to turn in. I braked to avoid a collision, but we still made contact and it broke my front wing. I had to pit at the end of the first lap and my race was effectively over.
“It’s a shame because we had a good strategy and a fast car, but today was not our day. Let’s just forget about this race and come back stronger in Brazil.”
Ocon’s team mate Sergio Perez retired from his home race, leaving the team point-less.
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Jere (@jerejj)
29th October 2018, 10:45
Not that it’d really matter anymore, but I wondered why did he pit for a ‘used’ set of the super-soft compound (presumably the same set he used in Q2) on his first pit stop even though he had an entirely un-used fresh set available for the race as well?
nase
29th October 2018, 13:42
@jerejj
Degradation was seemingly not an issue with the Supersoft tyres (with 6 drivers completing over 50 laps on a single set and Ricciardo just falling short of that due to his mechanical failure), but warming them up was. If I had to make an educated guess, I’d say Force India put him on slightly used tyres because those are a bit quicker to reach their working range.
Scottie (@scottie)
31st October 2018, 19:32
RP Force India struggling to make the points they should be. At least they have seen the worst of their days for the foreseeable future…