Sahara Force India F1 Team‘s Esteban Ocon suffered his third retirement in his Formula One career in yesterday’s Spanish Grand Prix – his second in two races.
The Frenchman was knocked out in Q2 in qualifying, meaning he would line up thirteenth on the grid for the race. He got off to a good start and was looking to be in contention for points until the first round of pitstops.
The pit crew had an issue with the removal of the rear right wheel, slowing the stop considerably and losing Ocon valuable track time. He re-emerged on the back foot, with the prospect of having to battle hard once again to get back to a points paying position.
But he didn’t get that far, retiring just a few laps after the stop. It was suspected to have been caused by a an oil pressure problem, but there has been no official confirmation.
“A disappointing day on my side of the garage,” he commented.
“We were racing well and looking good for some points. Then things went wrong at my pit stop when there was a problem changing the right rear wheel. We lost about twenty seconds and it put us to the back of the pack.
“A few laps later I lost power and had to park the car. It looks like an oil pressure problem, but we need to wait until the car is back to know exactly what happened.”
