Ocon explains why he disobeyed F1 team’s ‘hold position’ order

The French player made a successful attack. Finished 4th in Las Vegas from 16th on the grid Saturday was one of his best race performances of the year.

However, it was not without intrigue, as television footage showed him overtaking Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly shortly after receiving a radio message from the pit wall telling him to “hold your position”.

Ocon has previously been known to be very ruthless when it comes to fighting with his team-mates, but he revealed that this situation had nothing to do with him trying to get ahead of Gasly. Instead, it was explained by him not listening correctly to what was said to him on the radio.

Speaking to Sky about what happened, Ocon said: “Pierre was on old tires at the time and I think he was told, ‘Hold your position’.”

“But at the time, I didn’t know that it meant ‘holding a position.’ I was basically doing what I was told, so all I heard was ‘position.’

“If the team had asked me to return my position, I would have done so in a heartbeat.”

Ocon explained that his emotions after successfully pushing through the field to finish fourth were in stark contrast to the despair he felt after qualifying.

Photo credit: Mark Sutton / motorsport images

Esteban Ocon, Alpine A523, Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL60, Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-23

“It’s a crazy feeling,” he said. “I think we were probably at the lowest point of the season.” [after qualifying]. Very, very disappointed.

“It was my first six races since Singapore and I didn’t get much of a break. There were all sorts of hiccups and tricky races. But we are doing a good job as a team and I believe things will happen. It didn’t stop. But it took a while to arrive.”

Ocon enjoyed one of his best races of the year, but was even more disappointed for his teammate Gasly, who dropped from fourth on the grid to finish 11th.

He said he was unable to control the afternoon race due to the hard tires rubbing against him.

“There was quite a lot going on, but I think the main thing was that after five or six laps we grained the hard tires,” he said.

“I never recovered from that and the last 25 laps from there were very painful.

“Obviously frustrated because the start was great. I started on the right side of the train behind George [Russell] and charles [Leclerc]. He knew he had a big chance, but after putting on the hard tires it was an absolute nightmare. ”

Quote from Mandy Kuri and Adam Cooper

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