‘Important thing is to be there when it matters,’ Esteban Ocon reflects on promising start to the weekend

‘Important thing is to be there when it matters,’ Esteban Ocon reflects on promising start to the weekend

Esteban Ocon won the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix

Esteban Ocon had a dream run in the FP2 session at the Abu Dhabi GP weekend, as he finished second behind the Mercedes driver, Lewis Hamilton. The Frenchman separated the two Mercedes drivers, with Valtteri Bottas coming in third. Max Verstappen had a poor session, as he came in fourth after finishing first in FP1 session.

Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso also had quite an eventful Friday, as he finished sixth in both the sessions on Friday. Alpine have bagged back to back top four finishes, as they enter into the final race of the season as serious contenders for a podium finish.

Fernando Alonso delivered a P3 finish in Qatar, his first podium finish of the season. On the other hand, Esteban Ocon backed it up with a strong P4 finish in Saudi Arabia last weekend.

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Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso ready to push harder on Saturday

Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon

Esteban Ocon was optimistic about his team’s chances this weekend, going by how things have panned out on Friday. However, the Frenchman believes that it is important to deliver when it matters the most, in the final race and the qualifying sessions.

“Well, it’s only Friday, [but] it’s a good sign, for sure. We had both cars into the top 10 quite easily in that session, so that feels good, but the important [thing] is to be in there tomorrow, when it counts,” Alonso said.

“Today has been fun, for sure, we had a good time, and it’s nice to see ourselves on the top as well, but we need to push hard tomorrow,” he added.

Despite having two consecutive top six finishes in the practice sessions, Fernando Alonso took a rather pessimistic view and stated that Alpine generally look stronger on Friday, as compared to the main days.

“Probably not. I think on Friday normally we look a little bit more competitive compared to Saturday and Sunday. I expect we will drop a few positions tomorrow, but nevertheless, it seems a good circuit layout now for us with the modifications, so we are happy and we are ready to push,” Ocon added.

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