Ocon left frustrated by switch issue in Monza qualifying

Ocon felt he could have achieved better than 15th

Esteban Ocon was left frustrated by a switch issue after earning 15^th place in qualifying for the Italian GP.

On his in-lap after the Alpine driver highlighted that the entry switch – which locks the diff for corner entry on new tyres – had not been reset in the garage for his final lap.

It was doubly frustrating for the Frenchman as he felt that the car was stronger in qualifying than it had been earlier in the weekend.

“I think to start with on the positives, from Friday to Saturday really more like a level of performance that we had pre-Zandvoort,” he said when asked by this writer about the session.

“So really, there’s something that we touched overnight that has made the difference. We need to investigate exactly what it is, because it is not very clear at the moment, but the car, since this morning, FP3 and now, feels like more of a normal car, more like the one I’m used to from pre-Zandvoort.

“So that’s, that’s a very positive. On the other side because of that we could have gone a little bit quicker on today’s lap.”

Regarding the entry switch comment he said: “Basically, it’s a switch that I’m doing on the last corner of the previous run. But that’s normally reset in the garage, and I don’t think we’ve reset it that time.

“A bit my fault, a bit the guys’ fault, we messed it up. We should have seen it. And basically that gave me some understeer on the lap.

“And there’s going to be some work to do for tomorrow. I think our straightline speed is decent. So hopefully we can gain some places.”

Meanwhile Ocon’s team mate Pierre Gasly will start 14^th after front brake issues and a struggle for grip.

“I can’t turn the car and regardless of what we do,” he said. “We try to energise, and we have a problem with the rear, and then the front doesn’t quite come. Just felt like the grip was never there, together front and rear.

“Every single set we’ve put this weekend, we’ve had the same sort of behaviour on all compounds. We’ve tried, but unfortunately, we haven’t found the magic trick.”