Esteban Ocon‘s Austrian Grand Prix dash qualifying SQ3 out-lap driving left two of his rivals baffled after it appeared to thwart the possibilities of the chasing Sergio Perez and Pierre Gasly.
Whereas Ocon completed eighth in SQ3 – forward of Gasly however behind Perez – all three drivers ended the session feeling they might have performed higher as they got here beneath stress to start out their laps.
And for Perez, who ended up getting caught behind Ocon for his flying lap, the state of affairs was extremely annoying as he felt he ought to have been additional up have been it not for what occurred.
“I do not know what Esteban was doing there,” he declared afterwards.
So, how did the state of affairs play out?
All 4 have been on the finish of the queue on the pit exit late within the ultimate phase of dash qualifying.
Charles Leclerc pulled out of the road simply as they have been all lastly beginning to exit the pits as a consequence of an anti-stall drawback on his Ferrari unexpectedly slicing the automobile’s engine.
That allowed Gasly to achieve a spot, however he was likewise beneath stress to set a timed lap as forward Perez had continued driving slowly via the pit exit.
The Mexican driver then set off after Ocon, who in flip had allowed a spot to construct to Verstappen forward when the Frenchman was traversing the uphill pit exit behind Flip 1.
Esteban Ocon, Alpine A524
Picture by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
However the trio of Ocon, Perez and Gasly then compressed when Ocon appeared to gradual once more via the lap’s center sector – simply as Perez and Gasly have been responding to pressing directions to push on to keep away from getting caught with the chequered flag popping out to finish SQ3.
This fell a second earlier than Leclerc made it round to start out his flier, having restarted his engine.
At this level he had almost caught Gasly’s Alpine, with Lewis Hamilton near the Ferrari too as he completed his SQ3 timed lap on the head of the pack.
“What’s Esteban doing?” Gasly had requested as he exited the Flip 7/8 chicane on the finish of the frantic out-lap.
Forward, Purple Bull had been warning Perez “Nonetheless unsafe, Ocon’s obtained a free monitor” – after telling him earlier he was 5 seconds “unsafe” to make it round in time exiting the sharply uphill Flip 3 within the out-lap.
Perez was informed: “You have obtained one second, however maintain place, Gasly is there” when he requested if he might afford to again off in any respect from Ocon’s rear – having primarily caught it on the ultimate nook, with just some automobile lengths between them.
By this stage, Ocon had been repeatedly informed to “preserve your tempo up” by his engineer, who additionally twice knowledgeable him Alpine was “proud of tyre temps”.
By way of the ultimate corners, Ocon obtained the next radio messages:
Alpine, with Ocon on Flip 7 strategy: “Vehicles behind are going to be pushing for place, we have to preserve our tempo up. Maintain this place. [Ocon: Copy]. Large hole in entrance, we’re good to go, 33s to the flag.”
Alpine, with Ocon on Flip 8 exit: “Maintain your tempo up, please. Vehicles solely 2s [behind]. Now they’re on out-laps, however we have to preserve our tempo up now. 25s to flag.”
Alpine, with Ocon on Flip 9 strategy: “Go now, please, go now.”
Alpine, with Ocon on Flip 10 strategy: “Come on, let’s push now please – 15s.”
Pierre Gasly, Alpine A524
Picture by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Ocon went on to set a 1m06.101s that featured him sliding deep and broad at Flip 3, of which he later mentioned over his group radio that “the grip was tremendous low” on his softs and all of it meant Perez ended up 0.093s faster, regardless of working so shut behind.
Having been informed the ultimate SQ3 order on his in-lap, Ocon mentioned “I used to be pushing so much within the out-lap already”, which kicked off the next trade.
Alpine: “Yeah, I do know, you have been 5 seconds faster [Ocon: Five seconds]. I do know, I do know.”
Ocon: “5 seconds [faster] than I ought to’ve performed. So, sorry about that, however I could not do far more.”
With Alpine showing to just accept Ocon’s rationalization, Perez informed TV crews afterwards: “I do not know what Esteban was doing there.
“He apparently needed to drive actually slowly and I did my ultimate lap inside 0.5s of him.
“Principally, there was no probability. It is a disgrace as a result of we’re having a extra promising tempo there immediately. Sadly, we weren’t capable of maximise it.”
Neither Alpine driver appeared overly narked by the state of affairs after they made their very own post-SQ3 media appearances.
“It was a great quali, total, to get each vehicles in SQ3,” mentioned Gasly.
“Sadly, the SQ3 was unhealthy. Simply badly managed. We virtually did not get the lap. I needed to push within the out-lap to cross the road, [so] I had no battery on the ultimate lap and within the gearbox of Checo.
“So, we have got to overview to do higher – as a result of that is the form of state of affairs the place we are able to undoubtedly get higher out of it. However Q1 and Q2 the place superb and good tempo, only a disgrace about this final a part of quali.”
Ocon felt “clearly it was very tight and perhaps not the perfect final run – having to push that a lot on the out-lap was very tight with ending”.
He added: “We have been fairly in the back of the queue, me and Pierre, and I needed to push to maintain Pierre, mainly making him cross the road.
“So, yeah, not the perfect finish of quali, however I believe most when it comes to positions that we might’ve performed.”