Esteban Ocon believes Force India found the “sweet spot” with their car as the Frenchman finished as the best midfield driver in sixth in qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
The Silverstone-based outfit has been enjoying another strong weekend featuring in the top 10 throughout and after Sebastian Vettel’s engine problems, Ocon maximised the opportunity to claim his best dry-weather grid position at Sepang in sixth, just one place shy of the fifth he achieved at Monza in the wet three races ago.
Though clearly pleased with where he finished, the 21-year-old wouldn’t go as far as calling it the best single qualifying lap he has done so far in F1.
“I think it’s up there, but I don’t think it’s the best,” he said. “I missed the last corner, but let’s not speak about that!”
This weekend, Force India has continued to bring updates in their effort to secure what already seems a pretty certain fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship and Ocon was happy with how the team had responded after a poor Saturday two weeks ago.
“It’s a great team achievement today, looking at where we were in Singapore, the week of analysis that we did,” he said. “We just put the car out this weekend and it was very near where we needed it to be. I think we found the sweet spot in qualifying.”
Teammate Sergio Perez also made the top 10 as the Mexican claimed ninth, marking just the fourth time he has been out-qualified by Ocon despite the Mercedes junior’s excellent results this season.
“It wasn’t an easy qualifying session for me,” he admitted. “I’ve been unwell this week and this is possibly the worst place to not feel 100 percent.
“I made a mistake in Turn 11 during my final lap in Q3 and lost my rhythm. It was a small lock-up on what had been a very good lap until then, but it cost me enough time to be only ninth.
“It’s still a good result, all things considered, and it puts us in a good position for the race.”
