Esteban Ocon suffers a penalty and problems in the pits

On a circuit requiring as much aerodynamic downforce as Singapore, Manor was clearly not in its comfort zone and expected a difficult weekend. Thus, the team was not able to fight for a place in Q2, unlike previous races.

Nevertheless, Pascal Wehrlein was satisfied to have been able to stay ahead of Marcus Ericsson, despite having a clearly less performing car, at the end of a very difficult race: « It was clearly the most difficult race of the season. I pushed from start to finish, but especially after mid-race to ensure I stayed ahead of Ericsson. Given our performance during the weekend, we did not expect to have the pace to do it. I was able to do 26 laps on ultra-softs in the last stint. I had to make sure it worked and I succeeded. I am very happy. »

For Esteban Ocon, the race was much more complicated right from the start: “At the start, I avoided the debris from Hülkenberg’s accident but, after that, I received a penalty for overtaking under the safety car.” However, the Frenchman believed he had already overtaken Felipe Nasr’s Sauber before the yellow flag was deployed.

The situation was further complicated with a very problematic pit stop: « I served my penalty during my first stop, but the stop was even more problematic because of an issue with fitting a wheel. I lost so much time and it was very frustrating because there wasn’t much I could do other than finish the race. »

The Frenchman’s troubles did not stop there as his second pit stop was also complicated: « There then was a second difficult stop. It was hard to be so far away. »