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Esteban Ocon says that seeing his teammate Sergio Perez on the podium in Baku two weeks ago was "hard to swallow". Perez picked up his eighth career podium after an eventful race around the streets of Azerbaijan's capital.
Ocon himself failed to finish the race, after colliding with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen on the opening lap. It marked Ocon's second retirement in his F1 career, which commenced at the Belgian Grand Prix in 2016.
"For sure it’s a hard one to swallow even though it’s great for the team, in the end, to get a comeback like this from a strong weekend where we had great pace and we made a step," said Ocon. "A hard one to swallow myself but it’s important to take the positives, which was a strong weekend for us and good points for the team.
"We needed that. In the end whether it was me or him we needed that. It’s a shame that I retired on Lap 1, it was close with Sergio [Perez] at the start and that would have been terrible because we had the pace to do well. Let’s see if we can get the step from Baku."
The Frenchman is yet to take his first career podium, and arrives in Barcelona twelve months on from his best result in F1 to date. At the 2017 Spanish Grand Prix, Ocon crossed the line in fifth place, behind teammate Perez.
And when asked if he can take his first podium in 2018, he said: "I want to definitely. I think we will still have our chance. We don’t know [what] can happen this season but yeah why not."
Fergal Walsh
Grand Prix of Belgium
C. Sainz jr
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Replies (4)
Login to replymcbhargav
Posts: 1,332
Its a poor start for Ocon to 2018 season. Hope, he will step it up and capitalize on the Force India's latest improvements and goes beyond the group of very good mid rangers group ( Perez, Hulk, Sainz, KMag, Ocon, Romain)
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
It's times like this when Pérez' talent seems special. In a similar fashion to Ricciardo, or Alonso, Pérez always maximizes whatever opportunities he gets. Other than Spa last year (driving into Ocon) I can't think of other significant wasted opportunities. Baku last year was Ocon's fault. Anyway, there is a good reason why Pérez has 8 podiums and guys like Hulk, Kmag, Ocon, Sainz (to a lesser extent) have had 1 or less podiums.
RenaultFM1
Posts: 100
Perez has been in the 4th best car last years so of course good chance for podiums compated to K-Mag. Hulkenberg is just able midfield and there is where he is going to stay. That said, Perez has donw well to get those podiums and he deserves a run in a top team like example Renault.
Alonzo
Posts: 66
Agreed, I feel he's a step in front of all the guys in the midfield, except for Alonso, but he beat Hulk with the same car, He's shown to be ahead of Grosgean, KMag, Sainz, Ocon, Stoffel, etc... I also would like to see him join Renault, Merc is not happening, he's been mentioned as the next in line for a Ferrari seat, but I don't think that's ever going to happen...
So Renault seems like a good fit.... He needs to beat Ocon again this year, and maybe he'll be considered for a top seat....