Esteban Ocon delighted with his 6th place, Perez disappointed to be 10th

If Esteban Ocon is under high police protection this weekend at home for his teammate, it does not seem to have any impact on his level of competitiveness and consistency. Since Malaysia, the young Frenchman has always started from at least 6th place on the grid, and it will once again be the case during the race in Mexico.

This time, he was able to regularly outpace Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull. But appetite comes with eating, and the Mercedes protégé is looking more upwards than behind him: « Everyone here and at the factory has worked hard to make improvements, and I was really able to feel the difference today. The car was really competitive and kept improving throughout the session. I made a small mistake in my last Q3 lap and maybe could have gone faster and overtaken Räikkönen. »

But he will still be pleased to have once again outperformed his teammate, especially since the latter is racing in front of his tens of thousands of fans. Sergio Perez lamented not being able to do better than the 10th time due to his tires: “We changed our routine for heating the tires and I lost my feeling with the car. It was difficult to get the tires in the right window of use and I wasn’t satisfied with the car’s balance.”

Force India has already announced that team orders will be implemented once again for this weekend at high altitude. But it’s easy to imagine the pressure on the pit wall if the local driver finds himself once again behind his teammate and is not allowed to overtake him on the track.