Esteban Ocon’s 2021 campaign had one obvious highlight: That stunning and completely unforeseen breakthrough victory in Hungary.
Esteban OconBeat team mate in qualifying11/22Beat team mate in race9/18Races finished19/22Laps spent ahead of team mate502/1128Qualifying margin-0.35sPoints74
But that wasn’t the only impressive moment in a season during which he measured up well alongside one of F1’s top drivers, Fernando Alonso, who was playing himself back in at Alpine after two years away.
That didn’t come into focus immediately as Ocon’s season got off to a less than ideal start in Bahrain. He was compromised by Carlos Sainz Jnr in Q1 and got no further, then was taken out by Sebastian Vettel during the race. But over the races that followed it was clear Ocon was immediately more comfortable in the Alpine than his team mate.
At Imola Ocon reached Q3, lost ground at the start after pitting to swap wet weather tyres for intermediates, but recovered and passed Alonso. In Portugal…