Esteban Ocon ran out of luck on the streets of Monaco
Sahara Force India was the last team to score points with its two drivers. But this fine run came to an end with Esteban Ocon and Sergio Pérez finishing 12th and 13th respectively.
Esteban Ocon may harbor regrets after the race in Monaco. After his pit stop, he was ahead of Felipe Massa, who finished in 9th place under the checkered flag. But if the Frenchman had to concede, it was not due to a mistake on his part but simply due to bad luck. Indeed, he suffered a puncture, which forced him to make an additional stop.
The young driver therefore missed the opportunity to stay in the points for the first time this season: « It was a difficult day and a tough weekend overall. Things didn’t go our way in the race, which is a shame because we were fast and should have finished in the points. »
The Frenchman will certainly regret his small mistake with big consequences at the end of the third practice session; which compromised the rest of his schedule.
Conversely, Sergio Pérez’s weekend went ideally until the start, where he was in 7th place. Unfortunately, his front wing did not withstand the contact with Carlos Sainz, forcing him to make a pit stop earlier than planned: « Our race was compromised on the first lap when I touched Sainz and damaged my front wing. We had to stop early and I ended up in traffic. So it was difficult to climb back into the points. We were very fast but it’s always difficult to overtake, even if you are much faster than the cars in front of you. »
He didn’t refrain from doing it, finding an opening on Palmer and Stroll while diving inside Stoffel Vandoorne at Sainte-Devote when the Belgian made a mistake after the safety car. But his attempt on Daniil Kvyat’s Toro Rosso went much less smoothly: « Daniil didn’t leave me enough space and we touched. It wasn’t a big impact but enough to ruin both our races. Even if I missed the points, I’m proud of my race because I gave it my all. »
The FIA nevertheless ruled that the Mexican driver was guilty of this maneuver and therefore penalized him by 10 seconds, which had no impact on his final ranking since he was already last…
Disappointing race for us, P8 was possible but a puncture made us stop once more.
There is 14 races left and we will comeback stronger!#EO31 pic.twitter.com/tVFhgpyPX9— Esteban Ocon (@OconEsteban) 28 mai 2017
From our special correspondent in Monaco
