There was disappointment for Renault DP Wold F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon at the Red Bull Ring this weekend as he was forced to retire due to an issue with the cooling system on his car.
Starting in fifth place, Ocon lost a position at the start, but managed to stay in sixth for the majority of the early part of the race. He was passed by his team-mate, Daniel Ricciardo, on lap 19, but he had no choice to but to retire to the pit garage on lap 25.
Nevertheless, despite his non-finish, Ocon was pleased to battle it out with his team-mate, adding that the team had hoped between them they would be able to bring home a solid result. He is confident they will be able to resolve their cooling issues, and is hopeful they will cease to be a problem for them for the remainder of the season.
“We had a cooling issue with the car and that was very unfortunate. These things happen in motorsport, but we know we had a great opportunity today and it’s a shame where we were running to retire the car. Hopefully it won’t happen again this year.”
Ocon will have a chance to get some points on the board next weekend when the on-track resumes at the Hungaroring.
“It was good to have some fun with Daniel; we were both on different strategies and I think he had a bit more on tyres. We looked on for a good team result, so it’s a shame what happened. We have another opportunity next week to score some points,” he said.