Esteban Ocon believes P5 was possible before Charles Leclerc crash

Esteban Ocon was convinced a P5 starting spot could have been on for him had Charles Leclerc not crashed during Miami qualifying.

The Ferrari man brought an early end to Q3 after his crash into Turn 7 brought out the red flag and left the drivers with too short a time to set a final flying lap.

Practically the whole top 10 was affected in some way or another and while the likes of Kevin Magnussen, who will start Sunday’s race in P4, benefited, there was also the likes of Max Verstappen who did not benefit and will start P9.

Ocon, who will start P8, was another driver to be left feeling hard done by as he was convinced a top five spot was on had he been able to finish his laps.

“[There was] a lot more,” he told Sky Sports F1. “We did everything we needed to do in this session yesterday. I think we really improved the car. We bounced back definitely from Baku and I’m very pleased for the team in that regard but it feels again like a missed opportunity and something we don’t really have [control of].

“I was P6 in Q2, on merit. We did a meaningless lap in Q3 on the used tyre which was not going to be anything, just the warm up really, and that lap didn’t feel good on the used set.

“And then I went on that new one, was two tenths up from my Q2 lap already. I knew there was a top five possible there and I really nailed the couple of corners of the start. But I didn’t have the chance to show it and to complete it. Straight away, it was a red flag. So it was a missed opportunity. But tomorrow is when we count the points and hopefully we can come back.”

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Ocon has had a fairly tricky start to the season with his P8 in Saudi Arabia currently standing as his only points scoring finish of the year to date, but the Frenchman is confident he can translate their qualifying speed into race pace on Sunday.

“We can definitely convert the pace from qualifying to the race,” he stated. “There is no sign that it’s going to be harder for us in the race.

“We need to get the right strategy as usual. Get everything as it should, which is not going to be easy. But that’s how we have been.”