Esteban Ocon was very pleased with Alpine's pace at the Austrian GP, especially as the team tied with McLaren in the Constructors' World Championship
Esteban Ocon had an excellent race at the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday. The Frenchman managed to dodge all the chaos at the Red Bull Ring to finish in fifth position. With Fernando Alonso securing a point in 10th place and last Saturday's sprint race, Alpine is tied with McLaren in the Constructors' World Championship. Both have 81 points now.
After the race, the #31 extolled his effort to hold off a surprising Mick Schumacher right behind and, above all, the A522's pace over the weekend.
"Mick was flying, he kept me up! He had an amazing progress," said Ocon, "It was a great weekend, we had a very good pace," he added.
"We really enjoyed qualifying, the sprint and the race, it's 13 points in total. We are tied with McLaren for fourth place in the Constructors' championship, so we can be satisfied," he followed.
The 24-year-old driver revealed that Mercedes is the big goal. But before that, he praised the mechanics and engineers of the French team. "The team is doing an amazing job. These people work 24 hours a day and that makes the difference in the end," he acknowledged.
"That's what I told them: we still need more to be able to fight with Mercedes. Today we were a little ahead of one of them at one point, but we can't really fight yet. But the team is aware of this and there is more to come. Everything is working as it should, and we are very satisfied with our performance," he concluded.