‘I was afraid that it would fall on my head’: Esteban Ocon sheds light on his “awesome experience” while delivering the Ballon d’Or
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Esteban Ocon
For the recent Ballon d’Or ceremony, Esteban Ocon was given the responsibility of delivering the trophy to the event, and he did it in style. Ocon rode into the entrance of the Theatre du Chatelet in a Formula 1 car, with the ‘Golden Ball’ strapped onto the top, behind his head. Recently, he revealed what had been going through his mind at that moment.
Talking about his experience delivering the prestigious trophy, the Frenchman said: “I was a little bit afraid that it would fall on my head, because it’s very heavy, you know. It’s about seven kilos, I think, so, yeah, the guys at the team, they did a good job to hold it in place. But yeah, I mean, what an emotion, to just be driving a Formula 1 car in the streets of Paris, and to deliver it inside the theatre.”
This year’s Ballon d’Or was won by Karim Benzema, after a fantastic year for Real Madrid. On this, Ocon added: “And then, you know, it was won by Karim Benzema, you know, who’s, obviously a French player, made history again, so yeah, it’s been an awesome experience for me.”
Benzema won the award by quite some distance, with second-place Sadio Mane only getting 193 votes compared to the Frenchman’s 549. Manchester City’s Kevin de Bruyne rounded out the top 3 with 175 votes, and Robert Lewandowski was next closest at 170 votes, before Mohamed Salah completed the top 5, with 116 votes.
Also Read: Esteban Ocon brings Ballon D’or trophy in style to last night’s mega event
Esteban Ocon will be looking to get another one over McLaren
Esteban Ocon is having a good season at Alpine, currently sitting on 78 points. But he is still quite a bit behind Lando Norris in the best-of-the-rest battle, with a 23-point gap. His teammate, Fernando Alonso is 13 points behind. But Norris’ heroics cannot compensate for Daniel Ricciardo’s disappointing performances.
The Alpine car has been better most weekends for some time now, even if Singapore was a one-off. They temporarily lost fourth place, but came back strong in Japan, scoring 18 points, and reclaiming P4 in the Constructor’s championship. The French team will be looking to continue the charge in Austin and put a further distance between them and McLaren.
The gap is currently at 13 points. While it’s not inconceivable that McLaren snatch it, at this stage, Alpine seem to have the edge on them in car performance. With the Constructor’s championship all but wrapped up, this is likely to become the battle to watch out for,
Also Read: “Amazing Ocon,” F1 Twitter goes wild as Esteban Ocon delivers 2021-2022 Ballan D’or trophy in Paris
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)