Ocon, the points lost due to a penalty in Monaco
Ninth in the race, Esteban Ocon received a controversial five-second penalty for a collision with Hamilton, which pushed him out of the points. A very frustrating race for the Frenchman.
Very consistent since the beginning of the season, Esteban Ocon had only missed the top 10 once at Imola (14th). But in Monaco, the Frenchman was not exactly lucky. Qualified tenth, the Alpine driver held his position before taking ninth place following Sebastian Vettel’s premature pit stop in front of him. Then another world champion, Lewis Hamilton, came to the pits, giving his eighth place to Ocon.
But with its intermediate tires, which are more efficient than Alpine’s wet tires, the Mercedes driver quickly climbed up the ranks. Esteban Ocon offered him a fierce battle for nearly ten laps to not relinquish his position. However, the Frenchman was ultimately penalized with a 5-second penalty for a slight contact between the two cars, which he deemed himself responsible for.
« We went to review the images, and then the commissioners. It’s illogical, it makes no sense. They explained to us that there was a new rule in place, which they didn’t like either. I don’t really understand, it completely ruins the weekend. We could have stayed at home. » The Frenchman sighed disillusioned, into the microphone of Canal+.
The frustration is high for Ocon who finished the race in ninth place, behind Hamilton in the pit stop game, but will only be classified 12th due to his five-second penalty. The British driver had remained stuck behind Alonso after the red flag caused by Schumacher.
In medium tyres, the Asturian Bull perfectly contained his former teammate by driving at an extremely slow pace. If some thought it was a strategy to allow Ocon to overtake Hamilton and create a gap to offset the cost of his penalty, the Frenchman dismisses this hypothesis.
“There was no strategy, we were trying to manage the tire degradation as best as possible towards the end. When I received the 5-second penalty, Fernando tried to push hard so that Hamilton would go faster, but he was quite slow today and the others caught up. We didn’t manage to create a sufficient gap, so it’s tough to swallow this weekend,” explains Ocon.
Ninth at the checkered flag, the Frenchman pays the price for his teammate’s slow pace as three cars were within five seconds of him. Ultimately twelfth after the addition of his penalty, he doesn’t score any points but remains ninth in the championship with 30 units.
