P7 Esteban Ocon
Strategy: Used SuperSoft (38 laps) – New Soft (15 laps)
Esteban: “I’m feeling happy with the result today. We were targeting sixth place, but we just didn’t quite have enough pace advantage to make the move on Grosjean. However, seventh and eighth for the team is a great effort. My start was really good but I was squeezed onto the grass on the approach to turn one and had to back out of it, which cost me a couple of positions. From then on we had good pace and we managed to get ahead of Sainz. I was able to look after my tyres and make them last. I had one realistic opportunity to try and get Grosjean towards the end of the race, but it didn’t work out. I’m pleased we could end the European season with a strong result. We head to the flyaways in good shape and we have good momentum.”
P8 Sergio Perez
Strategy: New SuperSoft (39 laps) – New Soft (14 laps)
Sergio: “I am happy to come away from here with points, especially considering we were starting pretty far back on the grid. Unfortunately, I had to carry really big damage for the whole of the race: I was in a battle with Kevin [Magnussen] and he cut the chicane twice when I had already passed him. He was not told to give the position back but I managed to get alongside him again at Lesmo. He just didn’t give me enough room and put me all the way to the inside. In such a fast corner, there was always going to be contact and it ended up damaging my car badly. I had lots of understeer so it was a very difficult race. Despite these problems, we had strong pace and I was right behind Esteban in the final part of the race as we both tried to get ahead of Grosjean. We didn’t quite manage to be ‘best of the rest’, but all things considered we did a good job today. The results from the last two weeks show how strong this team is. We would be theoretically fourth in the championship and we are scoring good points. In Singapore we will get some upgrades, which hopefully means we can keep performing well in the final few races of the championship.”
Otmar Szafnauer, Team Principal and CEO
“Ten points from Monza represents a good reward for another massive effort by the team. The car has been strong from the start of practice and despite not maximising qualifying yesterday we recovered well to bring both cars home well inside the points. Esteban was very close to overtaking Grosjean in the final few laps and, despite having a quicker car, we just ran out of laps to make the move. Sergio was right behind Esteban, too, having battled back from P14 to eighth, which was a tremendous effort. The strategy calls from the pit wall saw us pit late in the race with both cars, which worked out well for us and ensured we had good race pace throughout the afternoon, and a relative tyre advantage at the end.”
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