Esteban Ocon enjoyed a solid day behind the wheel of his VJM10 on Friday, with the Sahara Force India F1 Team driver getting the better of team-mate Sergio Perez in both Free Practice sessions at Silverstone.
The Frenchman finished twelfth in the opening session and then improved to tenth in the second session, with his best time of the day, a 1:30.383s, 1.887 seconds off the pace of Valtteri Bottas, but 0.241 seconds ahead of Perez’s best.
“It’s been a solid Friday overall,” admitted Ocon. “Our pace was promising from the start of practice and we kept improving every time we went out.
“We didn’t make any mistake on a day of tricky conditions and I generally felt the car was pretty good. This is not an easy track on which to drive – it’s fast and demanding, but also very enjoyable to drive.
“We have work ahead of us and we’ll need to wait until tomorrow to see where we stand, but I think we have a strong base.”
Ocon revealed that the high speed nature of Silverstone, particularly its super fast corners, made it an impressive day of driving, although he admitted that he would require a massage due to the forces that had gone through his neck during the day.
“Something that really struck me on this track is the performance of the cars: they are so fast and the cornering speeds are impressive,” said Ocon. “You really feel it in your neck through the fast corners – I think I’ll need a really good massage tonight!”
