Esteban Ocon has admitted to speaking with Mika Hakkinen before pulling off a carbon copy of the Finn's famous Spa Formula 1 overtake in the Belgian Grand Prix. On Lap 35 of 44 at Spa, Ocon - who had started P16 in the Alpine due to grid penalties - came up behind the squabbling Sebastian Vettel and Pierre Gasly on the run up the Kemmel Straight to Turn 5. The two French drivers squeezed past Vettel either side, with Ocon emerging ahead and going onto claim a strong seventh place - as teammate Fernando Alonso banked a fifth place finish. The overtake was similar to double World Champion Hakkinen's iconic move in the 2000 Belgian Grand Prix on the same section of track where he dummied Michael Schumacher by using the back-marker Ricardo Zonta as a shield, going onto win. After the race, Ocon confessed that he'd actually spoken with Hakkinen before lights out.
Coincidence in speaking with Hakkinen
Alpine have enjoyed strong straight line pace throughout the 2022 season, with this helping Ocon cut through the field to bank an 11th points haul of the campaign. After the race, he admitted that it was just a coincidence to speak with Hakkinen before emulating his overtake. "Mika came in talk to me before the race, so it's a good coincidence!" he joked to media including RacingNews365.com. "It was definitely good fun, I've enjoyed the racing today, the car was extremely fast in a straight line, and I was managing the timing about when to overtake. "From where we started, I think P16 or P17, we were expecting one point. And we got six out of today, so that definitely a good result for us. "I spoke to Seb and, and I was like: 'the DRS detection is there, and he's passing Pierre too early, because he's not going to get the DRS. "From there, I lifted the throttle a bit, got myself a little bit of a gap, to be able to use the straight line speed and then the surprise was in the confirmation was that Pierre had DRS. "I was able to go on the left side, Seb was very fair, honestly, he could have closed a bit on the left, but he didn't do and I managed to get around the outside of Turn 5."
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Echoes of Spa's treasured history 🖤💛❤️ #BelgianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/mvJXOdePuk — Formula 1 (@F1) August 28, 2022
Best weekend of Ocon's Alpine career
Despite having claimed a Grand Prix victory and a further podium in his time with Renault/Alpine, Ocon believes as a overall weekend, his Spa effort was the best put together during his time at Enstone. Alpine's strong 16 point haul was enough to increase its lead over a pointless on the day McLaren to 20 points as both squads fight for fourth in the Constructors' Championship. "Honestly, I think it's been our best weekend of the year so far, and probably, since I joined the team," Ocon explained. "I think the update that we brought here, how the car was performing, definitely there is no comparison to even how we were in Budapest, so very, very impressed. "There's still more tools to come for us, so that's definitely giving us some confidence for the rest of the year. "Last year we qualified sixth or seventh with last year's car and this year the car is much better overall in comparison to the others. "The aim is still [getting into] Q3 and hopefully scoring the results."
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