In the round-up: Esteban Ocon says scoring points from last place after his crash in practice felt like a victory.
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In brief
Miami points like a win for Ocon
Ocon was unable to qualify for the Miami Grand Prix after heavily damaging his car during a final practice crash into the concrete barrier at turn 14. He recovered to eighth in the race, which he described as being “a victory for us.”
“I do think there was clearly a mountain to climb for all of us. But I think from the strategy to the radio calls, the tyre management, everything was perfect today.”
He admitted he felt in poor shape after his crash, which registered an impact of 51G. “To end up in the points being 50% physically as well for me feels like a win.”
“A lot of work ahead” for AlphaTauri to understand loss of pace in Miami
AlphaTauri suffered a miserable Sunday in Miami, failing to take home any points after both drivers finished in the top 10. Contact ended Pierre Gasly’s race and Yuki Tsunoda suffered a loss of pace.
Technical director Jody Egginton said: “Yuki struggled in the first stint, so we gambled on an early stop but the pace and car balance in his second stint was also inconsistent, meaning it was difficult to make sufficient progress.
“We need to go through all the data to understand the reasons behind these issues. Yuki managed to show some better pace in his final stint on the soft tyre, but by this point we were running out of laps to move forward further, and he finished out of the points.”
“We have a lot of work ahead of us before we arrive in Barcelona,” Egginton admitted. “We need to understand the various factors behind today’s performance, so we can move forward with our package and get back to scoring points.”
Cooler temperatures pushed teams towards one-stop strategies
Pirelli’s head of motorsport Mario Isola said cooler temperatures on Sunday in…