The Alpine driver was third behind Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen for most of the race in Jeddah, before being attacked by Valtteri Bottas in the final.
Although he managed to resist the Mercedes rival almost to the end, Ocon gave in in the sprint, being beaten at the finish line by just over a tenth.
Speaking of what happened, Ocon said the drop in performance he accused with two laps to go, triggered by the loss of a piece of the fund, was the determining factor.
“There was a sudden drop in performance in the last two laps,” explained Ocon. “I had had several contacts during the race. At the first start with Tsunoda and then with Hamilton at the second”.
“With two laps to go I lost a big chunk of the bottom, so I was a lot slower. I lost a lot of grip at the rear and I thought it was just a matter of tire degradation.”
“I had to use almost all the battery charge to keep Bottas behind, so by the time we got to the checkered flag I didn’t have a hybrid anymore. That’s why I couldn’t keep up with him. It’s a shame to have blamed this decline in the last two laps. but we can’t have it all. “
Ocon was handed pole for the second restart, buit said he didn’t want to try and keep Hamilton or Verstappen behind
Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images
The chance to get on the podium for Ocon was created when the Alpine decided to keep him on track during the first Safety Car. Which allowed him to find himself fourth when the red flag was displayed.
He then benefited from the clash between Hamilton and Verstappen at turn 1 at the restart to find himself in pole position at the second restart.
Well aware that the other two were fighting for the title, Ocon decided not to get too involved, even though he still had a little contact with Hamilton at the first corner after the second restart.
“I thought they were going to be aggressive to each other, but they hit me too,” he said. “I expected it to be a very tough fight in the first two corners, but I never had the intention of keeping them behind anyway.”
“I knew they would be much faster, so I let them both go. I was trying not to waste time and this was the best way to do it. Then the goal was to keep third place.”
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