Esteban Ocon was delighted to come through a tough Qualifying session at the Red Bull Ring with a top six starting position, with the BWT Alpine F1 Team driver only finding competitiveness from Q2 onwards on Friday.
Ocon admitted that his free practice pace and the speed he had in Q1 in Qualifying was not as strong as he would have liked, but the car appeared to come alive when it mattered in Q2, and he translated that strong pace into sixth place on the grid in Q3.
The Frenchman is optimistic that he can fight for points in both the Sprint race on Saturday and the main race on Sunday, although he knows everyone within Alpine, including himself, will need to remain focused to do so.
“I’m very pleased with our Qualifying result today finishing in sixth place,” said Ocon. “It felt like the car really came alive during Q2 and Q3 after a fairly challenging Free Practice and Q1.
“We’re in a good position for the Sprint Qualifying tomorrow and hopefully we can firstly solidify our grid position for the main race and secondly take some valuable points.
“There is room to improve, and we still need to assess the car on high fuel, which we’ll do in tomorrow’s Free Practice 2. I’m feeling optimistic that we can have two good races and, in order to do so, we must remain focused.”
“I had a broken floor after I ran wide on my first lap in Q3” – Fernando Alonso
Team-mate Fernando Alonso will start ninth in Austria, but the Spaniard is rueing running wide during his opening attempt in Q3 that broke the floor of his A522.
As a result of the damage, Alonso was unable to qualify as high up the grid as he was looking to do, feeling he had the pace to challenge for the top five.
Nevertheless, the two-time World Champion is looking forward and believes he can make positions during Saturday’s Sprint race before challenging for the bigger points on Sunday.
“The car felt very competitive today and it was good to be in Q3 again,” said Alonso. “However, I had a broken floor after I ran wide on my first lap in Q3, so we lost some performance with the damage.
“I think before that damage occurred, we were looking at the top five or six positions today, which would have been great for the Sprint tomorrow. From ninth place, our aim will be to recover some places tomorrow, which I’m sure we can achieve.
“Generally, it’s been a competitive Friday for us, so I’m hopeful we can have some fun in Sprint Qualifying and in the race on Sunday afternoon and claim some big points.”
