Sahara Force India F1 Team driver Esteban Ocon was disappointed to only come home in tenth place at the Singapore Grand Prix, in what was a chaotic race that should have allowed them the opportunity to finish higher up the order.
“I am not happy to come away with just tenth place, but at least we’re leaving behind a very difficult weekend – it’s not the best way to celebrate my birthday.”
Unlike his strong performance in Monza, which was also run in wet conditions, Ocon was unable to get the wet weather tyres to work correctly, and this saw the Frenchman drop down the order, behind much slower traffic. Despite his best efforts, the 20-year-old was unable to get by due to the lack of overtaking opportunities at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, leaving one extremely frustrated Frenchman.
“I made a very good start, but I struggled on both the wet tyres and the intermediates. This wasn’t the case in Monza, where I was much more comfortable in the rain, but something wasn’t working and I don’t know why.
“This dragged me behind some slower cars. After the track had dried, I had good pace but I just couldn’t overtake the cars I was chasing. It’s just very difficult to find an overtaking opportunity here.”
Although Ocon says he cannot grumble at scoring a point, he had his hopes set much higher this weekend, and will wait to understand exactly what the issue was, and hope the team can resolve it before the next race.
“It’s good to rescue a point in the end, but we wanted much more than that. We have to analyse what went wrong and come back stronger in Malaysia.”
