Ocon had made his first tyre change on lap 9 simply earlier than the tear-off grew to become lodged in a brake duct of his Alpine A524, triggering overheating.
On the time, he was in a battle with Kevin Magnussen, Alex Albon and Nico Hulkenberg, with each Haas drivers ultimately ending within the factors. Nonetheless, the brake temperature subject obliged Ocon to make a second cease simply seven laps after his first.
It was too early to permit him to get to the flag with no third cease later within the race to refit the little-used laborious tyres that he had deserted earlier.
He was categorised sixteenth behind the Saubers of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, each of whom suffered prolonged delays within the pits.
“Earlier than the tear-off we have been preventing with Kevin, Alex and I used to be in entrance of Nico,” mentioned Ocon when requested about his race by Motorsport.com. “So we have been on for doable factors, from ninth to eleventh, I believe that will have been the place we completed right this moment.
“Sadly, we’ll by no means know the end result, nevertheless it was an fascinating race. I used to be pleased with how we progressed, the tempo we had, we have been maintaining with these guys. So it was wanting good.”
Esteban Ocon, Alpine A524, leaves his pit field after a cease
Picture by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Pictures
Increasing on what occurred together with his brakes he mentioned: “On the primary lap, I received a tear-off in my mirror, that was the very first thing. After which a few laps later, it is not the identical tear-off, it is one other one which goes in my brake duct.
“The entire rear of the automobile was going to burn, if we did not cease. It clearly was the protected factor to do. Possibly conserving going would have made us retire, we are going to by no means know.
“So not a lot that we might have accomplished. I additionally had the radio failing by lap 30. It is like if the Wi-Fi is horribly unhealthy and it retains reducing, mainly!
“So so much went unsuitable a bit with simply being unfortunate, I’d say. I believe the factor to recollect is the progress that we have accomplished this weekend, slowly, however hopefully we will hold that going.”
Ocon believes that Alpine made a step ahead in Melbourne with understanding methods to set the troublesome A524 up.
“I believe that race has been the strongest out of the three, positively, by way of tempo and efficiency,” he mentioned. “And it is good. It signifies that it is stepping into the best path.”
“Every thing’s relative, however relative to the primary two, positively it is a step up. And the automobile felt higher as properly. So it is not solely that this observe fits the automobile higher – I do not assume it does. I believe we set it up significantly better than [at] the opposite races.”
