After a tricky Bahrain Grand Prix with one retirement and three penalties, Alpine got back on track this weekend in Saudi Arabia. Esteban Ocon finished eighth just ahead of his team-mate Pierre Gasly. The team is now 18 points behind Ferrari in the constructors' standings.

Otmar Szafnauer must be relieved tonight. The fiasco in Jeddah is quickly forgotten after the good Saudi Arabian Grand Prix of his two drivers. Apart from a close call at the first corner with contact between Pierre Gasly and Oscar Piastri (without consequences for the Frenchman, unlike the McLaren driver), the race went off without a hitch. Esteban Ocon told Canal +: "It was the maximum we could do, we were in management mode because the front was too fast, a bit sad as a race with Pierre. We thought we could catch the Ferraris on the first stint but we held on for very few laps. The same goes for the restart. We did the maximum today, it's up to us to work.

The team must now close the gap to the Top 4

The driver from Normandy noted a major finding of the race. Alpine still needs to make a lot of progress to compete with Ferrari and Mercedes over the long term. The gaps are very close between these three teams in qualifying, but the race is another matter. Higher up, Red Bull and even Aston Martin are in a different league. Ocon remains confident: "We know what to work on and that's a good thing. We'll keep it to ourselves but we need performance, which we lack at the moment. I'm happy to finally start my season, so we'll have to see.

Both drivers on the same wavelength

Pierre Gasly is once again in 9th place after Bahrain. For Canal +, he looks back on his strong start: "We had to be aggressive at the start to pass the McLaren as soon as possible. The race was solid. We finished where we should be with both cars. Second race in the points, we are starting to adapt to the car. There are lots of positives this weekend, we'd like to get closer to the cars at the front now." Like Ocon, he is now focusing on the gains to be made if he is to compete with the top of the grid: "We'll try to build on our good Q3, we'll try to continue to be in the points at the next race."