Light at the end of the tunnel
For what is the fourth ‘pure’ manufacturer on the grid after Ferrari, Mercedes and – albeit in a particular way – Red Bull, rejoicing for a ninth and tenth place is certainly excessive. Given how the 2024 season began Alpine However, the result obtained in the Spanish GP by Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon represents at least one small sign of hope.
For the second consecutive race the two French drivers are both entered the pointsthus allowing the Renault-owned team to regain seventh position among the Constructors, overtaking Haas. In a weekend in which there was talk almost exclusively of Flavio Briatore’s entry into the team, being able to return to comment on some good results achieved on the track cannot please the whole environment.
The words of the pilots
“It was great to get both cars into the points for the second consecutive Grand Prix – commented Esteban Ocon – it was a challenging race for us, but despite this we managed to get the car back into the top-10. In the end there was a rapprochement between Nico [Hülkenberg], but we managed to maintain the pace and take the final point. There are things to analyse, such as why the car seemed more difficult to drive in race conditions, as I was sliding a lot. Despite that, we were much more competitive this weekend. Next weekend we will aim to do the same in Austria, where we will have two opportunities to score points with Sprint“.
“This was our best race of the season as a team so far – he confirmed Pierre Gasly – so on this front I am very satisfied. We had some excellent qualifying on Saturday, which allowed us to get a good result on Sunday. We executed the two-stop strategy well and managed each stint well. We came close to eighth place, which only eluded us on the last lap, but I gave it my all. However, I am satisfied with a race like this, in which we fought against two fast cars – McLaren at the start and Red Bull at the end – and this is positive for us. We need to understand why the package was strong here and take these lessons for the future. We are progressing in a good direction, with three consecutive points finishes, and we must continue like this“.
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