Ocon at the same level as Ricciardo: 'We were on par thoughout the qualification'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Esteban Ocon was very satisfied with his race weekend in Mugello. The biggest victory for the Frenchman was that he could finally measure up to his teammate, the experienced Daniel Ricciardo. It is the Renault driver's intention to hold on to that.
Poor season start Ocon
The Renault duo are 8-1 in the internal qualification duel. Ricciardo takes the lead and only had to endure Ocon in front of him in the rainy qualification at the Styrian GP. In Mugello Ocon was close after weeks of disappointing performance.
Talking to Formel1.de, the Frenchman commented: "I'm very happy with the weekend. It will have to be like this every weekend in the future." At the beginning of the season there were still some problems with the car and the driver didn't feel completely at ease.
Ocon vs. Ricciardo
"That was rather difficult," Ocon continues. "The race in Mugello was no longer like that at all. I felt very confident behind the wheel. The whole weekend I felt competitive." That became clear on Saturday when Ocon was even faster than his teammate in Q1 and in Q2 when he was only 0.054 seconds behind Ricciardo.
In Q3, however, he had to let it go: "We were at the same level the whole qualifying session. It would come to the final run in Q3. I gave everything and was pushing because I felt confident." Ocon's self-confidence proved to be misplaced when he spun and ended his Q3 abruptly.