Sahara Force India F1 Team driver Esteban Ocon, achieved his best ever result in F1 at Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, a fifth place, which he was extremely proud of.
“I’m really happy today. Fifth place is a great result for me and, together with Checo in fourth, a fantastic day for the team.
“It’s a great ending to a weekend where we worked incredibly hard and it’s a nice reward for everybody in the team.”
The Frenchman has been impressive so far in his first full season in F1, regularly remaining within a couple of tenths of more experienced team-mate Sergio Perez, in both qualifying and the race.
Together the driver pairing achieved Force India’s best result of the year on Sunday, coming home in fourth and fifth place. To do that so early in the year, will no doubt bring a lot of self-belief to the Silverstone based team, as they strive to complete as strong a finish as last year.
Ocon praised the performance of the VJM10 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which he said felt quick all weekend, allowing them to easily stay ahead of their midfield rivals throughout the grand prix.
“The car was fast in qualifying and we were on the pace straight away yesterday. We kept pushing and we showed good speed in the race as well.
“Sure, there were some circumstances this afternoon that helped us, but you need to be ready to take the opportunities when they come your way.
“Once we had made it through the first lap chaos, we had the pace to easily keep ahead of all the cars behind and we could manage our race.”
The 20-year-old believes the team’s commitment and hard work is really paying off at the moment, and he is confident there is plenty more performance to come from the car, which makes him feel extremely positive for the remainder of the season.
“I feel we maximised what we could get out of today: the team are doing everything right at the moment and that’s what makes us so strong. There’s still a lot we can achieve this year: we are always there when it counts and the car is consistently fast.
“Scoring points every time we go out is what really matters for the championship so we need to keep up this consistency.”
