Tag: Esteban Ocon

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Double Points In Abu Dhabi For Alpine

The Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon capped off a strong season for the Enstone outfit in Abu Dhabi on Sunday as they ended the race in eighth and ninth place respectively.

Fernando Alonso started the race from 11th and came home in eighth place and speaking following the action action he said:

It was a fun race out there tonight and to see the championship fight go down to the last lap was exciting. For our race, we started on the Hard tyres and we did well to benefit from the Safety Car this time. I enjoyed the fights we had with the Alpha Tauris and to score double points for the team is a good result for Alpine. We weren’t quite as competitive this weekend, but we executed another strong race, so it’s a credit to the team. We now need to reset for next year and make sure we have a good winter ahead of 2022. I would also like to say Congratulations to Max Verstappen for winning the title. It was only a matter of time that he won the trophy and whilst there was some fortune in the incidents today, I think he is a deserving champion

Esteban Ocon started the race from ninth and came home in ninth and speaking following the action he said:

Congratulations to Max [Verstappen] for winning the championship. It’s well deserved as this year he’s been great and hopefully one day we’ll be up there battling with him in the future: that’s our aim looking forward. In terms of today, I’d say it was a good race for us. We did well on the strategy we had going from Softs to Hards on a one-stop. We didn’t benefit from the virtual safety car and we lost two places there unfortunately. Sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it doesn’t, that’s the way it is! I’m very happy to end the season on a strong note and that’s a positive. Thanks to everyone at Alpine F1 Team at Enstone and Viry for their hard work all season. Let’s keep pushing!

CEO of Alpine Cars, Laurent Rossi said:

Firstly, congratulations to Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes for a fantastic finale to the season. It was a brilliant end to a captivating year in Formula 1 and the perfect advert for what an entertaining sport we have the privilege to compete in. The drama they created today only makes us hungrier to be up at the top of the grid fighting for wins and championships in the near future. That is our ultimate goal and we will not stop the hard work to achieve that. Our race today was a fitting end to what has been a very memorable campaign. Both Fernando and Esteban battled hard and dug deep to score double points. Credit to them, to the strategists, to the pit-stop crew and to everyone at Enstone and Viry who has contributed to this success and consolidating fifth in the championship. I hope everyone in the team enjoys a good break over Christmas while we keep an eye on seizing future opportunities, especially from next year with the rule changes. Thanks to everyone on both sides of the Channel for a great season, capped with memorable races including Fernando’s podium and Esteban’s victory. We want to create more memories and moments like this and we’ll remain motivated yet humble in achieving our targets.

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A Fantastic Night Under The Lights For Alonso

The Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso had a fantastic night under the lights as Formula One hosted their inaugural Grand Prix in Qatar.

The double world champion started the race from third place on the grid as a result of penalties for Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas. The Spaniard showed great pace throughout the race coming home in third place and in doing so secured his first podium finish since the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix.

The podium finish was Alonso’s 98th of his Formula One career and his first with the Alpine F1 Team. Taking to Twitter following the race he said:

It was also a great night for Alonso’s teammate, Esteban Ocon who came from ninth place on the grid to finish the race in fifth place and in doing so gave the Alpine F1 Team a combined total of 25 points and taking to Twitter himself following the race, the Frenchman said:

The Alpine F1 Team have now strengthened their position in fifth place in the Formula One Constructors championship as they hold a 25 point lead over Scuderia Alpha Tauri with just two races remaining in the 2021 Formula One season in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi.

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Motorsport News Sport

A Great Race For Alonso

The Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso scored his first podium finish since the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix where he came home in second place in Sunday’s inaugural Qatar Grand Prix where he finished in third place.

The Spaniard who started the race from third place commented following the action saying:

“It felt fantastic today and to be back on the podium was so good. We deserved this result as a team and I’ve had to wait seven years since my last one. Hopefully we don’t need to wait this long again! We took some risks with the one-stop strategy but it worked out well. We had some strong pace and despite Perez catching us at the end we did enough to hang on. Esteban did a great job in assisting the result and our pitstops were brilliant, so well done to the whole team. I love this track and the car felt amazing all weekend, so I can’t wait to come back here. There was also quite a lot of action and overtakes, which is something we weren’t sure of at the start of the weekend. In the end, it was a perfect weekend for us and we scored lots of points in the Constructors’ Championship, so now we have a good advantage over Alpha Tauri heading into the final two races.”

Fernando Alonso

Esteban Ocon started the race from ninth and came home in fifth place and speaking following the race the Frenchman said:

“It felt fantastic today and to be back on the podium was so good. We deserved this result as a team and I’ve had to wait seven years since my last one. Hopefully we don’t need to wait this long again! We took some risks with the one-stop strategy but it worked out well. We had some strong pace and despite Perez catching us at the end we did enough to hang on. Esteban did a great job in assisting the result and our pitstops were brilliant, so well done to the whole team. I love this track and the car felt amazing all weekend, so I can’t wait to come back here. There was also quite a lot of action and overtakes, which is something we weren’t sure of at the start of the weekend. In the end, it was a perfect weekend for us and we scored lots of points in the Constructors’ Championship, so now we have a good advantage over Alpha Tauri heading into the final two races.”

Esteban Ocon

Chief Executive of Alpine Laurent Rossi commented saying:

What a fantastic team result. Firstly, a huge congratulations to Fernando on his podium. It marks his first since returning to the team and, I must say, after the season he has had, he truly deserves it. We knew a big opportunity would arise today with the pre-race grid penalties for some cars around us, which propelled us into a great starting position. From there, it was down to him at the wheel to navigate himself into contention, for the team to execute the right strategy by making the calls at the right time and the crew to deliver the perfect pit-stop. All of those elements fell into place and the end result is a deserved one: our second visit to the podium of the season. We must not forget Esteban’s equally brilliant drive to finish fifth today. He also enjoyed a superb start, which put him in a great position to score points. He benefitted from other cars two-stopping but still remained calm with others closing in late on to take a very valuable ten points. With today’s points haul we extend our lead on Alpha Tauri in fifth to 25 points with two rounds remaining. While this is a healthy advantage, we’re not going to get too far ahead of ourselves. We have two races to go and, as we have seen, anything can happen in Formula 1. We aim to build on our consistent performances so far this season – by scoring in 18 of 20 races – in order to cement fifth position by the end of the year

Laurent Rossi

The Alpine F1 Team tweeted:

Alan Permane, conducted a debrief following the race saying:

The result means that the Alpine F1 Team have moved into fifth place in the championship, 25 points ahead of Scuderia Alpha Tauri.