Esteban Ocon took the honour of being top Alpine F1 Team qualifier for 2021, after putting his car in ninth place for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, team-mate Fernando Alonso was left angry in eleventh at the Yas Marina Circuit.
Esteban Ocon has put himself in a great position ahead of the final race of the season, after qualifying in ninth place. It wasn’t all plain-sailing for the Frenchman, who irritated Sebastian Vettel in Qualifying One, after appearing to unsettle the German whilst the Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team driver came to the end of his lap.
Ocon should be fast in the opening phase of the race, the Frenchman will start on the soft tyre, whilst some around him will begin on the mediums.
Ocon is happy with how qualifying went, in what was a strong final qualifying of the year for the French driver.
“I think it’s positive today. I’m happy to be in Q3 again in ninth place, which was probably the maximum we could achieve. Everything was there, we were improving run by run, little bits at a time, so there was not much more left. Overall, it’s positive to be in the top ten for tomorrow’s race and happy to end the year – from a qualifying perspective – with this performance.
“We chose to start on Softs for tomorrow, and I’m sure there’ll be some opportunities ahead. As always, the aim is to score points and we want to finish the season as strong as possible.”
“In Q2 there seemed to be no rules” – Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso was left furious at the end of Qualifying Two, the Spaniard believed he was blocked by Lando Norris at the end of the session. Alonso caught Norris at the end of his hot-lap, whilst the British driver was only just starting his.
Eleventh isn’t the end of the world for Alonso, the Double World Champion has shown good pace at times over the weekend. The Spanish driver does of course get free choice of tyre, which could be crucial ahead of the race where degradation is predicted to be high.
Alonso feels like the car is strong but that it seemed like rules didn’t exist in qualifying.
“The car felt quite good so it’s a shame to miss out on Q3 after the issues at the end. The out-lap was wild in Q2 and there seemed to be no rules. It reminded me of what happened in Austria where there were penalties given out. Unfortunately, we don’t have anyone to referee this. I expect we might climb a few places but let’s see where we start in the end. I am happy that I have the free tyre choice so it gives us the opportunity to play with our strategy a little and score some points tomorrow.”
