by VALERIO BARRETTA
Alpine, Ocon gets the most
“Great work, guys“. Esteban's words Or with in the radio team commenting on the Suzuka qualifying – they finished in 15th place – they tell a lot about Alpine's moment, which at the moment can only hope to get through Q1. The #31 succeeded thanks to a great lap, in which he was also able to take advantage of the improvement in the track.
Pierre Gasley, however, was unable to obtain a clean lap and was eliminated from Q1: even with the updates brought to Japan, the hopes of points for him and Ocon, in a race without too many incidents, are still close to zero. The A524 still suffers from too many tire overheating and tire management problems.
Ocon's words
“I wasn't completely satisfied with the balance of the car in the final tests, therefore I'm satisfied with how we reacted as a team to improve the car's set-up in qualifying. The last lap in Q1 was good, but everyone else managed to move up a gear in Q2. I believe that today we exploited the car's maximum potential, but unfortunately it wasn't enough to go beyond 15th place. Tomorrow we will try to look ahead and make the most of all the opportunities that arise. We will try to stay in the fight and see where we end up at the checkered flag“.
Gasly's words
“It's definitely disappointing to be out of Q1 today. The car was good in the first sector during my second time attack, but then we seemed to slide a lot and maybe overheated the rear tyres. I had traction problems when exiting corners, the rear was too nervous and I couldn't get a clean lap. It's an area we need to analyze and understand because it's the one we're missing right now. Tomorrow we will fight in the race as we always do. There will be opportunities and tomorrow we will have to make the most of them. We will play our cards on strategy and see if we can take advantage of everything that comes our way“.
#Suzuka #Ocon #happy #maximum
