Ocon surprised by his 5th place in qualifying: “It’s difficult to explain”

The Alpine are well present in Hungary (Budapest). More in shape after a half-baked Friday, Esteban Ocon et Fernando Alonso offered the 5^e and 6^e places on the grid for Laurent Red and his gang. Long behind his teammate, the first-mentioned driver produced an excellent final lap to equal his best result of the season in qualifying (Saudi Arabia) and place his A522 in the Top 5 just behind Lando Norris.

« It's complicated to explain, admitted Esteban Ocon at the microphone of Canal +, a bit surprised by the renewed form of his car. We have to look to understand why we gained so much time during qualifying.

Before qualifying, we weren't very comfortable. We tried a lot of things on Friday, different settings, etc. It's a very good result to start in the Top 5 in Hungary. I've never started this high on the grid here. It's great ! It's a weekend where we consumed a lot of energy, we racked our brains to try to find performance and today it paid off."

Norris in the crosshairs

On the Hungarian turnstile this Sunday, Esteban Ocon will have a mission well defined by his team: to pick up Lando Norris, 4^e on the grid, to consolidate the 4^e place ofAlpine among manufacturers. For this, he will be able to rely on his teammate Fernando Alonso who helped him a lot in 2021 when he scored his first Grand Prix victory on this same track.

« I think if we qualified ahead it's because we have the pace to do so, he points. We'll have to see tomorrow (Sunday). The freshness may have helped us. Tomorrow it might be warmer. From where we start, we will have to give Lando Norris a good battle, that's our objective. He was too fast for us today (SATURDAY) but we will try to beat him tomorrow. » The Norman knows what he has to do!

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