Esteban Ocon has revealed the closing stages of the Mexico City Grand Prix were "torture" after suffering from illness through the weekend.
The Haas driver was caught by what he has described as "a bad surprise" after the previous weekend's race in the United States, which confined him to his hotel room in between the two events before making the two-hour flight.
The illness came as a shock to the system for Ocon, who would have expected to have potentially been ill at the end of the year, when the season is over, rather than with a handful of grands prix remaining.
The race at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez naturally proved to be particularly difficult for the Frenchman, who managed to score a vital two points from finishing ninth at the end of the 71 laps.
"It was quite bad," said Ocon, speaking to the media, including RacingNews365. "It took me quite a while to recover, to be honest.
"I'm not one to shout, 'I'm sick', but it was probably one of the toughest races I've ever done. The last 15 laps were torture, to say the least.
"But we still completed it, we still got points for the team, and that was the important one, but quite strange to be sick that early in the year, to be honest.
"There were a lot of people in the paddock that were, and in our team as well. Long seasons are quite tough on those.
"Hopefully now I'm immune for the rest of the winter and for next year."
As to the exact nature of his illness, Ocon said: "It was like a big cold. Between Austin and Mexico, I stayed in my room for two or three days, sleeping as much as I could. I had a temperature, and stuff like that. It was quite bad.
"It's one of those things that you can't control, unfortunately."
Ocon confirmed he is now feeling 100 per cent going into this weekend's São Paulo Grand Prix, adding: "It took me a while in the week to recover, but I still managed to put in some decent training.
"But it hit me quite hard, which was a bad surprise, to be honest."
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