BWT Alpine F1 Team scored 12 points from the Las Vegas Grand Prix as Esteban Ocon climbed twelve places from sixteenth place on the grid to finish in fourth place at the chequered flag. Team-mate Pierre Gasly was unfortunate to finish outside of the points having started from a season-best fourth place on the grid, as he crossed the line in eleventh.
It was an entertaining Saturday night Grand Prix under the impressive city lights, which started with incidents in the early stages. Esteban gained eight positions on the opening lap to occupy eighth, with Pierre maintaining his starting spot of fourth.
Pierre pitted on lap 17 for new Hards with Esteban in three laps later for his mandatory stop. From there, it was about managing the tyres to the end of the race. Both drivers fairly battled for position on lap 34 with Esteban able to pass Pierre to slot into fifth place.
Eventually, Esteban inherited fourth after Oscar Piastri’s late pit-stop before conceding fourth on the road to George Russell whose five-second penalty led to Esteban claiming a deserved 12 points. Pierre struggled to manage the Hard tyres as he finished in eleventh place.
The team now heads to Abu Dhabi for the final race of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.
The Race:
Esteban started from P16 on New Mediums (L20 pit-stop for New Hards). Fastest Lap: 1:36.637
Pierre started from P4 on New Mediums (L17 pit-stop for New Hards). Fastest Lap: 1:36.913
Esteban Ocon, started P16, finished P4: “What a night in Las Vegas to be outside of the points to finishing in fourth place! I would like to say a massive congratulations to the team for this great result and amazing recovery. It was a chaotic start and we managed to keep it clean and gain eight positions on lap one. After that, we had to be patient, execute a clean race and managing the tyres was really the key. I made some good overtakes along the way and to finish fourth at this amazing venue is really a great result, especially considering how I was left feeling after Qualifying. There is one more race to go in Abu Dhabi next week and we will aim to carry this momentum into the season finale”
Pierre Gasly, started P4, finished P11: “It’s a disappointing outcome on my side of the garage to go from fourth on the grid to outside of the points in eleventh place. There are many things for us to review as that is not what we set out to achieve today. It was a good start under tricky conditions, the first stint was fairly well managed and we were comfortably in that top four mix. As soon as we put the Hard tyre on, we just seemed to struggle, the tyres grained and the whole second stint was a challenge just to get to the end. It was a frustrating night and it’s a pity for us. That said, it’s been a very good weekend for the team with fourth place in Qualifying and then Esteban’s fourth place in the Race. We will do our analysis and come back next weekend for the season finale in Abu Dhabi ready to end the season as best as we can.”
Bruno Famin, Interim Team Principal: “Overall, it’s been an encouraging weekend for the team in Las Vegas. While yesterday in Qualifying belonged to Pierre after a brilliant single lap effort, today, it was about Esteban who drove superbly to rise from sixteenth to fourth to score 12 points. He did well to avoid the chaos at the start and then pieced together two well managed stints to look after the tyres well and maintain competitive pace to the end. For Pierre, we have some things to assess. As a team we will carefully analyse this weekend’s performance – better than we anticipated – before heading to Abu Dhabi for the final race next weekend.”
BWT Alpine F1® Team
