Esteban Ocon saw his chance of a first Formula 1 point disappear when he dropped two places on the final lap, with Fernando Alonso grabbing the final point on offer as a result.
Ocon ran as high as eighth during the treacherous Brazilian Grand Prix, and was lucky early on to avoid the stationary car of Kimi Raikkonen who had crashed out on the pit straight. Ocon was seen coming out of the spray and only last second reactions avoided potentially a huge crash.
“I’m really disappointed and sad for all of us,” admitted Ocon. “It was such a difficult race and though I have my own feelings on whether the race should have continued, that doesn’t matter.
“If the track is declared fit to race on, we have to race and do the best job we can. There were some pretty scary moments out there; I was so lucky to react so quickly to the Kimi incident.”
With the Sauber F1 Team breaking through to a points finish for the first time in 2016 with Felipe Nasr taking ninth, Manor Racing MRT now fall to the bottom of the championship standings with only one race remaining, and Ocon admitted his disappointment that the race seemed to go Sauber’s way rather than their way.
“Obviously I was pushing as hard as I could – throughout the whole race in fact,” said Ocon. “In the third race stint – after the second red flag – it was clear I just had to push to catch Felipe because the chances of him coming back down the order to a position of safety were diminishing.
“The race was going his way, not ours. I did what I could but the cars behind me were closing and in the end they just had the pace to get by. There are so many reasons to feel disappointed today that I can’t just single that one out, but, yes, my first F1 point would have been nice.”
