Monaco Grand Prix: Race Recap

Ocon started from 17th position on Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires, gaining two places due to Gabriel Bortoleto’s pit lane start and Max Verstappen’s stall off the line. Ocon pitted on lap 9, taking on White hard tires, and returned to the action in the thick of the midfield group. Ocon held 15th but moved up the order amid problems for rivals to hold 11th position when the race was suspended due to the track breaking up. Ocon took the standing restart from 11th place on Red soft tires and maintained his position, slotting into the points when George Russell served a penalty, and was promoted to ninth when Nico Hulkenberg was penalized.

Bearman took the start from 19th position on medium tires but sustained front wing damage on the opening lap and pitted for repairs, during which stop his VF-26 was fitted with hard tires. Bearman re-joined the action in 21st and last position, and the dropped time meant he got stuck in a cycle of obeying blue flags to slow for lead cars. Bearman came into the pits on lap 30 to retire from the grand prix.

TGR Haas F1 Team holds seventh position in the Constructors’ Championship on 21 points.

Up front Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli claimed his fifth successive victory, ahead of Scuderia Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull Racing’s Isack Hadjar.

Ollie Bearman:

“It’s been a challenging weekend in general, even though the car showed great pace in qualifying, it’s a lot of what could’ve been. After a qualifying like yesterday, it’s tough to do anything around here, and that was proven right, it was a horrible day out there. I got damage and needed to pit on lap 1, so we needed a miracle after that, and I didn’t get it, but I’m glad we scored points with Esteban. I’m excited to reset for Barcelona next week.”

Esteban Ocon:

“We got everything right, we made the right calls, and the strategy was great. We managed to keep out of trouble with the last corner as well, which was tricky. It was very tough, but I did it for this team. After 20 laps, I thought I couldn’t finish the race, but then we got to the end in P9. It’s very well deserved, I’m super happy, it shows you should never give up. On a track where it’s very difficult to overtake, you never know what’s going to happen.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:

“It’s been a really tough weekend, with some really bad luck, but this proves that you should never give up until the very end. Esteban and Ollie touching each other on lap 1, causing Ollie’s front wing damage, it wasn’t an ideal start. Ollie couldn’t really do anything from there on, and he was struggling with a brake issue, so we had to retire him. With Esteban, we kept chipping away, and with what was happening in front with Williams, there wasn’t a whole lot we could do, but we focused on only what we could control. We executed well, and we’ve come out of it with P9 – what this team deserves. I think we could’ve done a lot more with the speed we had, but I’m really happy we got something to give back to this team.”