The Monaco circuit serves as a venue where drivers can make a difference, as evidenced by the numerous backmarkers who were competitive throughout Saturday’s qualifying session and the tight margins between the teams.
One such team is Alpine, which has been grappling with an overweight car all season but appeared significantly more competitive on this historic circuit. In qualifying, Esteban Ocon encountered some traffic during Q1 but managed to narrowly avoid elimination in P15. However, his teammate, Pierre Gasly, ultimately outperformed him, pushing Ocon out of Q3 to the 11th position
Gasly secured his place in Q3 by finishing P5, just a tenth and a half behind the fastest time in qualifying. It marked his first Q3 appearance this season. Despite this achievement, Gasly made an error on his sole flying lap on new soft tyres in the last segment, resulting in a P10 finish.
Ocon expressed his frustration over the lost opportunity to secure a better position on a track notorious for its difficulty in overtaking.
He had put in a fast banker to be inside the top 10 on the initial runs, but the 2021 Hungarian GP winner had a massive lock up into turn 1 on his final run and was forced to abandon his lap, missing out on Q3 by 0.069s.
“Insanely frustrating, but that time, it’s my bad, and I’ll fault us drivers this time because we had the pace as a team to get into Q3, probably near the top 5, sixth or seventh.
“Unfortunately I made a mistake in Turn 1, my lap was gone, and I almost went through with one set of tyres to Q2 so that’s how good the pace was.
“And unfortunately at the end of Q3 there was also a mistake from Pierre so we will try to push the boundaries and we missed out that time so we need to do better for the next ones.”
Looking ahead, Ocon remains optimistic about their chances, starting from 11th on the grid. He believes there are opportunities to gain positions during the race if things fall their way.
“Definitely we are in an opportunity to take positions, I think we can be pushing on, and see where we get to.”
