Ocon feels he made a step forward at Mugello

Finley Crebolder
Esteban Ocon

Esteban Ocon

Despite not finishing the race Esteban Ocon is happy with how he performed at the Tuscan Grand Prix and thinks it was a step forward for him.

At face value, it was a poor few days for the Renault driver at Mugello.

On the Saturday, he made it to Q3 but only qualified P10 after spinning on his final lap.

Then, on race day, he was forced to retire after the first Red Flag due to an issue with the brakes on his car.

However, in terms of his own personal performance, he’s pleased with how the race weekend went and thinks it was one of his best since joining the team.

“I’m happy with this weekend, and that will hopefully be the case in the future too,” he told formel1.de.

“We [previously] had problems with the car and how comfortable I feel in it. It was a bit difficult in that regard. But that wasn’t the case in this race.

“I felt very comfortable behind the wheel. I felt strong over the weekend.”

Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo
Esteban Ocon must set "realistic" goals against Daniel Ricciardo says Cyril Abiteboul.

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Ocon has had a difficult first season back after being without a seat in 2019.

He has struggled against team-mate Daniel Ricciardo on both Saturdays and Sundays, often failing to match the Aussie’s pace.

The Frenchman puts such struggles down to failing to find the right setup, and says, with the right one, he felt he was a match for Ricciardo at Mugello.

“It was definitely with the set-up and our decisions. We definitely had problems.,” he added.

“A couple of times I just lost speed on the straights. That was two or three races – and of course, that cost us time, but we had long discussions about what we could do to improve that, and this weekend it paid off.

“We were tied throughout qualifying, and it came down to the last run in Q3. I pushed hard because I felt confident.”

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