Esteban Ocon achieved his first visit to Q3 during qualifying for the Russian Grand Prix, with the Frenchman happy with the car’s performance as he secured a tenth place start for tomorrow’s race.
“It’s the first Q3 appearance of my career and I’m pretty happy with our performance today,” he said. “The team has done an awesome job to improve the car during each session and I felt very comfortable by the time we started qualifying.”
Ocon made similar comments to his Sahara Force India F1 Team team-mate, Sergio Perez, stating that the lap wasn’t perfect and had it been so, a higher starting position wasn’t out of the question.
However he must take confidence from knowing that his more experienced partner suffered similar nuances, and in the end there was less than a tenth between them.
“I made a few small mistakes on my Q3 lap so I’m a little bit frustrated because there was the opportunity to be even higher up the grid,” he continued.
He is adamant to make the most of this good fortune and to get the most out of his best grid position. But first he must safely navigate the first lap, which in the past has proven messy and costly for a number of drivers.
“If I can make a clean start in the race, there is all to play for tomorrow,” he added. “It’s important that I make the most of my best qualifying position in Formula One to score some more points.”
