It was a strong Sunday afternoon in the Spanish sun for the BWT Alpine F1 Team, after what was a shocking Qualifying for them. Esteban Ocon recovered from twelfth to finish seventh, whilst Fernando Alonso finished his home race in ninth despite having started last at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Both Alpine drivers proved that they have a much stronger race car than they do in one-lap pace, after both pulled a number of overtakes to climb up into the points places. The team may wonder what could’ve been, had both cars made it into Qualifying 3. With the midfield proving incredible tight yet again this season, it’s vital that the French side get on top of their qualifying performance, in order to maximise their Sunday pace.
Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi, highlighted this point, as well as explained that the team did a good job considering where they were prior to the race.
“While the weekend didn’t look promising before the race, we managed to recover with both cars finishing inside the points. To go from twentieth, and last, on the grid with Fernando and twelfth with Esteban to eight points in the bag at the end is certainly satisfying and well deserved. We’ve managed to salvage points after a tough Qualifying, which is important in a close championship fight like we’re in.
“That said, we need to continue the hard work, in particularly ensuring more performance consistency throughout the whole weekend to better our starting grid positions. We’ve demonstrated today, on a demanding track in tough conditions, that we have what it takes to perform well on Sundays. We now need to ensure we put ourselves in a position where we’re battling for the higher points-scoring places on a more regular basis.
“In the circumstances, a good job by everyone in the team today and we now look ahead to Monaco next week where we know Saturday performance there often defines the outcome for Sunday’s race.”
