Ocon happy to have helped Alonso in Canada

Esteban Ocon was pleased to have "played the team game" to help Fernando Alonso in the final laps of the Canadian Grand Prix.

The Frenchman and his teammate were sixth and seventh, respectively, but Alonso - who had a problem with his car during the race - began to be pressured by Valtteri Bottas.

Ocon took his foot off a bit to give Alonso a vacuum, and he believes this was well managed by both of them.

"I think we can be satisfied," Ocon told the media. "I think the car felt a little bit more alive than it did the last two days."

"We still need to understand a lot of things to know why, but I think we maximized the overall potential because the cars in front were too fast and the cars behind were a little bit faster than us, to be fair."

"At the end, Valtteri was putting a lot of pressure on Fernando and we tried to do the team play so that Fernando had the DRS."

"We did that well, we executed perfectly. It's a big boost for us in the constructors' championship, and the fact that McLaren didn't score helps us a lot."

Ocon further explained his tactics to help Alonso: "Fernando had a little problem with the engine, so he was losing a little power.

"I was taking my foot off on purpose in order to help him take my vacuum and defend against Valtteri. We did a great team effort together and were able to hold him off just barely because it was tight!"

In allowing Alonso to approach, Ocon was not worried that the Spaniard might try to overtake him.

"I trusted him and the team, I knew that wouldn't happen. We did it in Brazil last year and I didn't pass him on that occasion."

"However, if it meant he could defend himself against Valtteri and avoid overtaking, we could always switch again afterwards."