The Alpine driver had held third position behind Hamilton and Verstappen for much of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix race, but just before crossing the finish line he was overtaken by Bottas.
Although he managed to hold off the #77 Mercedes for a few laps, Esteban Ocon eventually lost the podium after the final corner and crossed the checkered flag just over a tenth away from Valtteri Bottas, who eventually agreed to the ceremony. podium in Jeddah.
Speaking of what happened at the end of the race, the French driver said a drop in performance two laps from the end, triggered by part of the floor of his car coming loose, was the main reason he missed out on the podium.
“Suddenly we lost quite a bit of performance in the last two laps,” he explained.
“There was a lot of contact everywhere during the race. In the first start I had some contact with Yuki Tsunoda, and then later also with Lewis Hamilton.
“So we lost a lot of the ground two laps from the end, and I was going quite a bit slower. I lost quite a bit of rear grip and I thought it was just my tire degradation.
“I was forced to use a lot of battery to keep Valtteri behind. And then coming to the checkered flag we basically ran out of power. That’s why we couldn’t retain the podium. It’s a shame we lost it on the last lap. , but obviously we can’t have everything.”
Ocon ‘s podium opportunity came thanks to Alpine’s gamble to keep him out in the first safety car period, which saw him gain several positions and move him up to fourth at the first red flag.
On the restart he benefited from the showdown between Hamilton and Verstappen at Turn 1, eventually taking pole for the second restart after a bizarre FIA negotiation with Mercedes and Red Bull during the second red flag.
Well aware of the championship situation, Ocon did not want to get too involved in fighting the title contenders, but was still drawn into their battle when he hit Hamilton ‘s front wing.
“I thought they were going to be aggressive with each other, but they also hit me right then and there,” he said. “I mean, I was expecting it to be a tough fight in the first few corners, but I never really intended to hold them back anyway.”
“I knew they were going to be much faster, so I let them both go. I really didn’t want to ruin my career at the time, I was just trying to put on the best performance I could, and that was the best way to do it. After that, we needed to keep that third place, but we couldn’t.
