Despite a 10-place penalty, Bearman expects chaos in Monaco GP, planning aggressive two-stop strategy to recover lost ground.
Oliver Bearman believes he could have secured a strong result, but due to a ten-place penalty for overtaking under red flag conditions yesterday, he didn’t push for a strong time to avoid taking a Q2 spot from Ocon: “The feeling in qualifying was really good, the car was better than at any other point in the weekend, and I was confident.”
“I didn’t want to be in Q2, but I think my lap would have been clean. A good position wouldn’t have changed my race unless I had been in the top five, and that wasn’t expected. I wanted to push and I was happy with my laps on fresh tyres.”
Now, the Briton will have to rely entirely on the two mandatory stops: “I think so, we’ll have to try something. The pace was very strong today, and it’s a shame about yesterday’s penalty. But tomorrow’s race is going to be crazy.”
Ocon Shines in Monaco
Esteban Ocon delivered one of the standout performances of the Monaco Grand Prix qualifying session by securing the eighth fastest time. His Q3 appearance comes as a welcome boost for the Haas F1 driver after several challenging weekends, even though not everything is resolved.
“It was unthinkable, no doubt about it. We’re still facing a lot of issues with the car, especially getting it into the corners and making it turn. I have to come to a stop when entering a corner. We kept working on it during qualifying, trying things with the differential and the front wing,” Ocon told Canal+.
“In the end, we improved run after run. It was tough to get out of Q1, but once we managed that lap in Q2, we saw that things could go well. And I’m really happy with the Q3 lap. I was on the limit in Turn 1, hit the wall three or four times but without losing time.”
“And I’m pleased for the team because we’re working really hard to solve the problems. We haven’t fixed everything yet, but it’s great to see that here in Monaco, a driver can still make the difference, and that we achieved something solid as a team.”
Strategy Key for Ocon
With a two-stop race and 78 laps ahead, the Frenchman is cautious about assuming a good result is secured. He knows that strategy will play a key role, especially with the two mandatory pit stops.
“It’s far from over. There are two stops, we need a good start without losing positions, and we have to stay alert to all the strategies. We’ll have to see who has which tyres because everyone used very different things, but if we finish where we start, it will be a good weekend.”
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