Alpine Racing
Esteban started from Pit Lane on New Hards and finished P13: Pit Stop on Lap 48 for New Mediums. Fastest Lap: 1min 20.659secs. Pierre started from P8 on New Mediums, finished P10: Pit Stop on Lap 28 for New Hards. Fastest Lap: 1min 21.274secs.
Esteban Ocon
It was a difficult and long race for us today. It is not easy to start from the very back, and although we had a few fights to move up to thirteenth place, the pace was not enough for us to reach the points. We have some work to do before next weekend to understand where we can improve. There are a few days for us to work together for a better result in Brazil, and we will aim to maximise everything we can do there on another Sprint weekend, during which there are two opportunities to score points.
Pierre Gasly
I’m delighted with the point today. It’s only one point – probably the best we could achieve – but it’s satisfying as it’s been a few races since we last scored, and it shows that we continue improving. After a strong qualifying yesterday, we must confirm that with a reward, so I’m happy that we got tenth place today for the team. It was a close call at Turn 1. I felt some contact and saw Yuki [Tsunoda] go off, so I was undoubtedly quite fortunate to escape from that. From there, we drove our race and focused on managing everything as best as possible. Next week, we go to São Paulo for another Sprint event. We have some work to do, especially our race pace, but I’m optimistic for another positive weekend.
Oliver Oakes – Team Principal
It’s nice to come away from Mexico City with a point and return to the top ten. Pierre drove a good race; we did not have the pace to challenge the Haas cars today. We took the opportunity to change components on Esteban’s car, which meant he started from the pit lane, running him long in the first stint, and he did well in recovering some places throughout the race. We were not as competitive in race trim as in Qualifying, so we have some work to do in the coming races.
