They faced each other twice on the track, at the start and then ten laps from the finish: Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon finish in points of the Grand Prix contested this Sunday at the Interlagos circuit (Brazil). The AlphaTauri driver, ranked seventh, manages after an irregular period to align two top 10 (which had not happened to him since the sequence Belgium-Netherlands). For the Alpine representative, this eighth position marks a return to the top 10 after two blank results. Summary below.
Gasly passes the Alpine at the end
Very good takeoff for Pierre Gasly, seventh on the grid and sixth at the first turn. But the Normand came out too wide at turn 4 which allowed Hamilton (Mercedes) and Vettel (Aston Martin) to pass him under his nose. The first lap was tense with Ocon, offensive on several corners, but Gasly won against his old rival in karting. It points to eighth row at the end of the first round.
Le Bois-Guillaumais quickly managed to wipe out Vettel to follow in the wake of Ferrari’s Leclerc and Sainz, without managing to threaten them. He is seventh in the 20th of 71 laps. Then Gasly is one of the first to go twice to the pits to renew his sets of tires. This allows him to come back to the Alpine (on a one stop strategy) in the last twenty laps. The Seino-Marin will win over the Eurois after a (new) muscular duel between the two men ten laps from the goal. Then Gasly continues by erasing Alonso. He is back in seventh position and will keep that rank until the checkered flag.
Ocon still in the top 10
Esteban Ocon, eighth on the grid, was forced to brake early before the first corner he tackled in the middle of the track. The Alpine driver, overtaken by Hamilton (Mercedes), had to defend himself against his own teammate then tried to attack Gasly in the first lap. The duel between the two Normans turns to the advantage of the AlphaTauri pilot.
Esteban Ocon lost a place against the speed of Ricciardo’s McLaren. The Ebroïcien found himself tenth in the first third of the race and managed to stabilize his position by keeping Stroll (Aston Martin) to two seconds. On lap 30, after his pit stop, he was three rows and five seconds ahead of his teammate Alonso, but the Spaniard, with fresher tires, will come back and pass the Normand.
Fifteen laps from the end, Ocon finds Gasly, as at the start of the race, but this time in his mirrors. The Alpine made only one pitstop versus two at the AlphaTauri, which thus benefits from more efficient tires. The native of Évreux will resist several loops before giving in ten laps from the finish after a nice pass, virile but correct, between the two Normans. On the last lap the Alpine reversed their positions, Esteban Ocon therefore ranked eighth.