Esteban Ocon has revealed that clarification talks with the FIA highlighted the reason for his first penalty in the Formula 1 season-opener in Bahrain. Alpine driver Ocon qualified ninth in Sakhir, but endured a terrible race day, which started with a five second penalty for being out of position in his grid box. This penalty was improperly served, with a resulting 10s penalty being handed out, but the Frenchman sped in the pitlane whilst serving that, and so was given another five second hit. He would eventually retire and speaking to media in Jeddah for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, revealed that the first penalty was not for being too far forward in his grid box as was first thought.
Reason for Ocon penalty
"We admit our mistakes in Bahrain, we clearly got it wrong," Ocon explained to media, including RacingNews365 , at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. "There's a saying that when it rains, it pours. That's what happened to us in Bahrain. "Collectively, we are usually very good on operational things like that, and this time we were not. "I've had the meeting with the FIA just to understand exactly what happened, it is clear now and we move forward. "I was [too far over to the right] basically, so that's where it could get confusing, because it was too much over to the right and over the line. "Unfortunately, you can't see very well in these cars, especially not when you're on the grid like that. You can see the yellow line as a reference, but it is up to me to fix it."
Hoping to build on qualifying pace
Ocon had a strong Saturday in Sakhir, placing the Alpine in the top 10 as they look to once again head the midfield runners. He believes an even better result is possible in Jeddah - a race he has enjoyed success in, qualifying fifth and finishing sixth in 2022. "It is definitely what we are targeting and we did it in Bahrain, which is definitely not our best circuit," he explained. "We got P9 in qualifying [in Bahrain], but we qualified fifth here last year and we've been very strong on this track and it is a track I've been enjoying racing at. "Hopefully we can repeat the same [this weekend], be competitive and have a good race weekend."
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