Ocon: "Painful" to get disqualified in United States

Force India driver Esteban Ocon has revealed that it was painful for him to find out that he was disqualified from the United States Grand Prix post-race, as he had used too much fuel in the opening lap of the race in Austin.

The Frenchman finished eighth for Force India, but was stripped from those four points post-race, with the FIA revealing that Ocon had broken the rules of fuel-consumption. His car had exceeded the maximum fuel flow rate in the first lap.

“It’s a shame obviously to get disqualified especially after a good race like we had. Still good points in the end, it was a solid race,” the 22-year-old was quoted by RaceFans.

“The thing that bothers me the most is that you push the whole way through, you push hard, you give it everything and actually you could have just pitted lap two, it’s done. That’s probably what is the most painful after the race.”

Ocon also pointed out that the breach of the rules didn’t make him any faster or didn’t let him gain any straight-line speed. In fact, he thinks he was actually slower than normal.

“We simply made a mistake on the calibration in the first half of the lap. As soon as you go through the normal running mode that’s gone, basically. And then it was fine, it was not an advantage in performance or anything it was probably slower. The rule is the rule and we made a mistake, we went beyond the rule and that’s it.”