Despite finishing in the points, Esteban Ocon was left feeling disappointed after the 2017 Malaysian Grand Prix with thoughts of what could have been.
An early incident with Williams Martini Racing driver Felipe Massa meant the Frenchman was forced to pit on the second lap for new tyres.
“It was a disappointing race and I’m not feeling very happy.” said Ocon. “The contact on lap one [in turn two] with Massa gave me a puncture and ruined my race.
“I had to pit on lap two and drive almost the entire race on one set of soft tyres. When you consider the condition of the tyres at the end of the race, we did well to score the final point.”
Ocon completed 53 laps on the soft compound Pirelli’s to bring his car home in the points. The contact with Massa wasn’t the only incident for the Sahara Force India F1 Team driver.
“The other bad moment of my race happened when I was overtaking [Carlos] Sainz and he crashed into me. I shouldn’t have been fighting him, but I was out of position because of the puncture and trying to recover.
“I don’t know what he did, but he just locked up and went straight into me, causing me to spin. So it’s a race to forget for me because the pace of the car was strong and we couldn’t maximise it.”
